Midcoast Aviation named Skip Madsen VP of MRO, responsible for MRO sales and services at its St. Louis headquarters as well as its satellites in Boston/Bedford, Chicago, Palm Beach, and Teterboro, and at Savannah Air Canter. Madsen, who has been with the company since 2007, will report to Don Petersen.
Toughbook Meets New Mil Durability Specs Panasonic says its Toughbook 30 laptop, Toughbook 19 convertible tablet and Toughbook U1 ultra mobile handheld computers have performed to and above the military's new standard for mobile computers—Mil-Std-810G. Meeting this standard involved passing 20 tests, as well as IP65 ingress protection and ASTM D4169-04 vehicle vibration tests.
European regulators have spent several months laying the groundwork for potential retaliation to a proposed provision in U.S. aviation legislation calling for the Federal Aviation Administration to conduct twice-annual inspections of foreign repair stations. European legislators have asked that the U.S. exempt repair stations from any new requirements for FAA inspections in Europe because repair station oversight will be covered under the European-U.S. Bilateral Aviation Safety Agreement. European regulators feel the U.S.
Pacific Aerospace Resources & Technologies (PART) bought out Victorville Aerospace’s assets in August, finally anchoring that company after it filed for reorganization under Chapter 11 last September. PART plans to grow its new Victorville base, where it will offer MRO, modifications, asset and maintenance management, mission critical systems development and integration, platform technologies and flight test services to military and commercial customers from a hangar large enough to host an Airbus A380. Facilities
OGMA recently delivered an SA330 Puma helicopter operated by the French government to SIMMAD (Structure Integree du Maintien en condition operationnele des Materiels Aeronautiques de la Defense). SIMMAD has been a helicopter maintenance customer of OGMA's since 2002.
Honeywell has booked 2,300 firm and option orders for IntuVue, of which just more than 200 are in service. Of that number, half are on the C-17, with the others on the A380, 777 and 737NG. Rockwell Collins says more than 3,000 MultiScan radars have been installed on aircraft operated by 110 airlines worldwide. Of that number, the new MultiScan Hazard Detection Radar accounts for about 1,200.
Panasonic Avionics and SIA Engineering Co. signed a 10-year agreement for the maintenance of inflight entertainment and communication equipment on Singapore Airlines' entire fleet. Panasonic will work in conjunction with SIAEC to provide a “one-stop-shop” solution covering all on-aircraft labor, logistics, spares, repairs and media loading. Parts/Components
Vector Aerospace has been selected to begin upgrading the Royal Air Force’s fleet of Chinook multi-mission, heavy-lift helicopters next year, by installing the model 55-L-714A engine and spare parts from Honeywell Aerospace. The work is expected to last for five years. The contract, valued at approximately $185 million, was awarded to Honeywell in August.
Delta TechOps inked a $7 million, four-year component maintenance and inventory logistics contract with Canadian charter airline CanJet. Delta TechOps will take care of component and logistics inventory support for the Halifax, Nova Scotia-based carrier's Boeing 737-800s. The agreement covers avionics, pneumatics, and hydraulics, and it provides access to Delta's inventory of 737-800 components for spare parts. It also signed a $1.3 million, three-year component deal with another Canadian carrier, First Air.
A J Walter will support another Astraeus Airlines Boeing 757-200 under an existing power-by-the-hour support arrangement with the U.K.-based sub-lease services and aircraft and crew provider, which operates a fleet of five 757s and two 737NGs. A J Walter has supported Astraeus Airlines from its base near London-Gatwick since the carrier's launch in 2002.
Boeing has closed a deal with the government for the purchase of 15 CH-147F Chinook heavy-lift helicopters. The program includes a 20-year in-service support and maintenance contract worth about $2.2 billion, almost twice as much as the $1.2-billion price of the helicopters. The contract includes an option to extend MRO to the life expectancy of the aircraft. No word has been released yet as to whether Boeing or a local company will be responsible for maintenance services.
LONDON—The U.K. Air Accident Investigations Branch (AAIB) has made 14 safety recommendations for changes to equipment, maintenance procedures and operational security for A319 aircraft. These key changes appear in its newly published final report into a serious inflight electrical system failure on an EasyJet A319 in September 2006.
Elbit Systems received an operation and maintenance contract from the defense ministry covering the Israel Air Force’s (IAF) new Hawker Beechcraft T-6 (Effroni) turboprop trainer. The value of the deal has not been disclosed. The contract runs for five years and contains an option for five more. Elbit has provided MRO services to the IAF for training aircraft and helicopters since 2002.
Premier Air Center amended STC to install a four- or five-display Universal Avionics EFI-890R electronic flight instrument system on Dassault Falcon 50 aircraft, STC ST02226CH
Consultation periods for an EASA Notice of Proposed Amendment (NPA 2009-06) concerning the use of composite materials in aircraft structures ends this month. With new, largely composite jetliners soon to enter the market, NPA 2009-06 aims to create a single Acceptable Means of Compliance chapter (AMC 20-29) to standardize recognized good practices for composite aircraft structure design, manufacturing and maintenance.
According to Greek legend, Prometheus brought fire to Earth by lighting a torch from the sun’s chariot. That same fire is being harnessed today at General Electric’s Repair Technology Center of Excellence, taking the form of a laser beam. The center’s research teams are finding more uses of this modern technology to repair a widening range of parts.
Business aircraft MRO shops are adjusting to a lackluster refurbishment and modification market, reeling from the impact of tight budgets, cutbacks in flying and a huge inventory of unsold pre-owned aircraft.
Monogram Systems reissued STCs to install Envirovac toilets, chemical injection toilets or Envirovac vacuum waste blowers on McDonnell Douglas MD-11; Boeing 767-200 and -300, 747-400 and 777-200; and Airbus A319 and A320 series aircraft, Several STCs
Siam Hiller Holdings reissued STC to install Allison 250-C18A, -C18C, -C20, -C20B engine and related changes on various Bell 47G helicopters, STC SH657NW
September's Technical Innovation correctly said that metal fiber brushes can carry two to four times the current as carbon brushes, but should have continued to say that 250 amps per square in. are easily obtained with 1,000 amps per square in. under select conditions. The caption on p. 32 should have read, An X-ray shot of the laser-drilled cooling channels in the turbine blades of a Rolls-Royce Trent 1000. Boeing provided the September cover photo of a 787.
Condition monitoring (CM) systems record machine-performance data remotely via sensors. CM systems can be used in different facilities, but must be manually programmed each time they are moved, a procedure that in Europe can cost around €100,000 ($140,000). The Fraunhofer Institute for Experimental Software Engineering of Kaiserslautern has developed a CM system that can be installed in different facilities without manual programming. The software runs on a basic language developed by Fraunhofer, which lets engineers set the system up with a “drag-and-drop” function.
Plating Maskant Wax Petroferm Inc., Cleaning Products offers a new, highly refined plating maskant wax with a melting point of 168-180 degrees F, designed to be suitable for nickel sulphamate and other selective plating applications. AEROMAX MT should exhibit excellent flexibility, adhesion and substrate compatibility, and it should be able to mask both simple and complex geometries, Petroferm says.
Aerospace executives hope to continue making inroads on their long quest to simplify and ease U.S. export controls on certain aerospace parts with a White House and congressional review of the U.S. export control system. President Obama in August directed the National Economic Council and National Security Council to undertake a broad interagency review of the U.S. export control system, according to a White House statement. The review is to include both the dual-use and defense trade processes.
