Twenty years ago, OEMs warned about the dangers of PMA parts. Now, some manufacturers are making PMA parts themselves or licensing chosen vendors to do so. Boeing has given Goodrich approval to produce landing gear parts for the 737NG and 777. This means Goodrich can sell PMA parts—it prefers the term Goodrich OEM, or GOEM parts—directly to the airlines. In the past, Goodrich produced landing gear parts for Boeing, which sold them to the market. Now Goodrich can do both—sell to Boeing, or sell direct to the airlines.
ST Aerospace subsidiary STARCO inducted its 10th and 11th All Nippon Airways Airbus A320 aircraft for C checks and modifications under a three-year contract announced in November 2007. Engines
SR Technics will carry out 157 maintenance checks for Easyjet’s Airbus A319s under a pact that extends their prior collaboration. The two-week Intermediate Layover checks will take place at SR Technics Zurich on a dual line between mid-March and summer 2015.
Health and usage monitoring systems (HUMS) have made a major contribution to helicopter safety by keeping a watchful eye on engines, gearboxes and rotors. Now GE Aviation Systems is adding the capability to monitor airframe corrosion under a two-year, $2 million research contract from the U.S. Armys Aviation Applied Technology Directorate.
Kelly Aviation Center earned EASA certification for the CF6-50 engine. The Lockheed Martin Corp. affiliate in San Antonio, Texas, currently does CF6-50 MRO for the KC-10 and E-4B fleet under contract to GE. Minority investors in Kelly Aviation Center are GE and Rolls-Royce.
Growth, consolidation, globalization. Industry leaders agree these three factors will continue and multiply. Maintenance executives around the globe see eye to eye on another shaping factor: human resources, or the lack thereof. The number of people entering the workforce at every level, but particularly as operational employees, struggles to keep pace. This shortage of human resources is the most important issue facing companies and the MRO industry at large, according to a 2008 survey conducted by TeamSAI and Heidrick & Struggles.
Boeing also received a $1.1 billion U.S. Department of Defense contract for C-17 Globemaster III total systems support under the fiscal year 2009 C-17 Globemaster III Sustainment Partnership, a performance based logistics program. This includes a previous award of $514 million for the first six months of this fiscal year (October 2008-March 2009), and extends the period through September.
Air New Zealand subsidiary TAE purchased Tenix Aviation, its second aviation services company in Australia. The deal closed on Dec. 9 and Tenix Aviation will be renamed TAE Aviation. TAE (Tasman Aviation Enterprises), headquartered in South East Queensland, provides commercial and defense aftermarket services from five sites in Australia. New Zealand’s National Business Review said the other recent acquisition was Masling Industries in New South Wales, which provides aircraft engine component maintenance.
AAR Corp. added Dave Cann as VP, regulatory compliance. Cann, who retired as manager of the FAA Flight Standards Service, Aircraft Maintenance Division, in January 2008, now is in charge of quality and regulatory compliance efforts for AAR’s repair station business under senior quality officer Mickey Cohen. On the safety and environmental side, Rayner Hutchinson continues as VP, quality and safety, also reporting to Cohen.
The Air Transportation Association is hoping to bridge a final gap in the movement to digital distribution of parts with a new specification for parts release. FAA recently approved use of the ATA Spec 2000 Chapter 16, Electronic Product and Part Regulatory Documentation, as a means to use electronic forms for signing off on parts rather than the paper Form 8130-3.
Singapore’s SilkAir picked Panasonic Avionics’ Multiplexed Passenger Entertainment system for installation on 12 Airbus A319/A320s. A regional subsidiary of Singapore Airlines, SilkAir began the conversion work in August at SIA Engineering Co., but word of the contract was not revealed until Jan. 6. The contract includes nine options. The SilkAir fleet includes nine Airbus A320s and six A319s.
Atlantic Fasteners won a pair of two-year contracts from Lockheed Martin together worth nearly $1 million. The West Springfield, Mass.-based manufacturer will provide Lockheed Martin’s U.S. business units with hundreds of fastener varieties through December 2010.
Hamilton Sundstrand received a firm fixed price U.S. Air Force contract worth an estimated $6.2 million to repair and overhaul digital electronic engine controls, engine diagnostic units and associated parts for F-15 and F-16 aircraft. As of early January, no money had been obligated. Tinker Air Force Base, Okla., was responsible for the contracting activity.
Messier Services U.K. (Safran Group) and EADS are providing landing gear overhaul services for the RAF’s Tornado combat aircraft fleet, via BAE Systems as prime contractor. This 8.5-year contract covers 134 Tornados.
Heli-One, an operating division of the CHC Group, with headquarters in Vancouver, British Columbia, announced in December its receipt of a new FMV (Swedish Defense Material Administration) contract worth C$11.2 million ($9 million) to complete avionics upgrades on two Eurocopter AS332M1 Super Puma (Hkp 10) military helicopters. From early this year, these will receive integrated defensive aids suite equipment and services, plus night vision goggles, at Heli-One’s facility in Stavanger, Norway.
AirCell Business Aviation Services, reissued STCs to install satellite communications equipment on Dassault Falcon 2000, Falcon 20, Fan Jet Falcon and Bombardier BD-700-1A10 aircraft, Several STCs
AgustaWestland appointed Air Works its service center in India . Air Works offers MRO for fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters. It also provides MRO services for Honeywell engines—TFE 731 and CFE 738 series—and APUs, as per an October 2008 agreement with the OEM. India’s Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) approved Air Works last November for independent airline MRO at its commercial operations center in Hosur, near Bangalore.
United Airlines named Mark Mounsey VP of base maintenance for United Services in San Francisco. Mounsey joins United after a 20-year career at Pratt & Whitney. He will report to Jim Keenan, SVP maintenance. Mounsey succeeds Tracy Elving, who, according to a United spokesperson, left the company a few months ago. Airframes
When a pilot files a squawk about a malfunctioning avionics component, in nearly one out of three cases today the technician will not be able to duplicate the reported failure, making it impossible to isolate and repair the problem. No Fault Found (NFF), as this scenario is termed, is, in fact, considered a significant problem in avionics maintenance, especially as components become increasingly complex.
The Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore in December issued a checklist for Safety Management System assessments. The CAAS SMS Assessment Checklist, available to download at http://www.caas.gov.sg/ caasWeb/export/sites/caas/en/Regulations_And_Guidelines/Guidelines_and_Manuals/AFO/Reference_Materials/download/aw127.pdf, measures SMS effectiveness.
