TransDigm Group acquired Aircraft Parts Corp. from Unison Industries, a wholly owned subsidiary of GE Aviation, for about $68 million. Holtsville, N.Y.-based APC supplies proprietary engineered parts to the commercial aerospace industry, including turbine engine components used on Citation business jets, Bell and AgustaWestland commercial helicopters, Bombardier Learjets and Dash-8-400 turboprop aircraft, among others. Facilities
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.
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.
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.
Click Commerce and Miro Technologies formed a strategic alliance to complete and market an aftermarket maintenance and logistics software solution with performance based logistics (PBL) specific functionalities, called the ePBL (extended PBL) portal.
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.
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.
Bar Air, to install the BAR Air supercharger system on Teledyne Continental Motors IO-550-N engines and install the supercharged engines in Cirrus SR22 aircraft, STCs SE10926SC and SA10925SC
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
Airline chiefs are looking at ways to extend the term of voluntary Aviation Safety Action Programs (ASAP) to encourage more carriers to get involved and make the programs less vulnerable to lapsing. The Air Transport Association’s Safety Council in January discussed the possibility of lengthening the renewal period after certain ASAP programs were put on hold at three of the nation’s largest carriers.
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.
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.
Two sizes of parts washers from Oil Eater are designed to produce little waste and require little maintenance. The larger work station is equipped with a 45-gallon water-based parts washer, measures 24 -by-32-by-9 in., and comes with three five-gallon pails of Oil Eater cleaner-degreaser. The smaller unit comes in a 25-gallon size, measures 19-by-29-by-15 in., and comes with two five-gallon pails of solution.
StandardAero will provide PW100 and PT6 engine MRO services to France’s Direction de la Defence et de la Securite Civile fleet of 12 CL415 water bombers, nine S2F Trackers, three Beechcraft King Air 200s and two Dash 4-402MR aircraft as part of a maintenance package that also includes site management and logistics and line maintenance.
IFS enhanced its IFS Applications maintenance suite with a constraint-based scheduling tool for work orders designed to allow users to see how project changes affect return to service dates for improved turnaround times. IFS says the tool also can help lean programs by identifying bottlenecks and maximizing throughput.
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.
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
Spairliners began component support work for Qantas’ A380s under a new, 10-year technical services agreement. The joint venture of Lufthansa Technik and Air France Industries will repair and replace about 750 components from its warehouse under the deal, which covers all 20 of the aircraft Qantas has ordered. The agreement comes a year before Air France or Lufthansa are slated to receive their first A380s; including these future deliveries, Spairliners will provide component support for 47 total A380 aircraft.
A Boeing-led team recently completed a major mission-system upgrade for the NATO Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) fleet from a $1.32 billion mid-term modernization program. Modification of NATO’s 17th and final AWACS aircraft was completed on schedule in November, by the European Aeronautic Defense and Space Company (EADS), as an industry partner and sub-contractor to Boeing, which also delivered two NATO AWACS mission simulators modified with the Mid-Term configuration.
VEM Maintenance & Engineering gained Airbus approval as the OEM’s authorized repair center in Latin America for A310 rudders. The approval expands the MRO’s A310 repair program, which is fairly new: it received FAA certification to maintain the aircraft in August 2007, and EASA maintenance approval in January 2008. VEM M&E could see business from Airbus special structural instructions for the rudders to prevent fluid ingress and disbonding. EASA AD 2007-0266 (effective Oct. 22, 2007) and FAA AD 2008-11-05 (effective June 25, 2008) also address the issue.
Ameco Beijing’s test equipment for air cycle machine (ACM) repairs passed airworthiness audits , the MRO said in late December. The equipment simulates ACM conditions on both Airbus and Boeing aircraft to check the air conditioning system component’s temperature, pressure and airflow.
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.
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.
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.
