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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
The TechnoPack XT Videoscope from Karl Storz Industrial is intended to be durable, flexible and portable for on-the-go inspections. The videoscope itself features a touchscreen VGA monitor with an integrated sunshield. This monitor is positioned on a swivel mount attached to a telescoping support, which should make it easy for inspectors to view its screen from any angle.
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.
The new Sony SXRD T-Series projector for visualization, simulation, and command and control applications now is available through VDC Display Systems. The next generation version of Sony’s S-Series projector combines a dual Xenon arc lamp, a native resolution of over 8.8MB and one of the highest resolution imaging chips on the market today, VDC Display Systems says. The new model also improves brightness.
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.
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.
