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 Helicopter Association International announced winners of its 2009 Salute to Excellence Awards. HAI recognized Tony Cramp , senior advisor air safety and global projects for Shell Aircraft International in Rotterdam, with its Joe Mashman Safety Award. Rich Higgins , helicopter crew chief for Cablevision Systems Corp. in Farmingdale, N.Y., won its Helicopter Maintenance Award. And, Jeffery L. Peabody , a maintenance technician with Air Logistics of Alaska, in Fairbanks, Alaska, will receive the Aviation Repair Specialist Award. HAI will present the awards on Feb.
Abu Dhabi Aircraft Technologies (ADAT) is expected to survive and possibly thrive once the dust settles. The company, now controlled by Mubadala Development Co., the investment arm of the emirate, seems to have a renewed purpose and a realistic view of the services industry in the Middle East. With annual revenue of around $320 million, ADAT is profitable, said CEO John Byers, a veteran of Air New Zealand Engineering. ADAT accumulates around 1.9 million man-hours of heavy maintenance annually.
Olympus’ new EPOCH 1000 series of digital ultrasonic flaw detectors with phased array imaging offers three instrument configuration levels for different inspection applications. Each product in the line can be integrated into small systems for high-speed scanning and single channel imaging, Olympus says.
“Many defense organizations are outsourcing maintenance and modification programs to the industry on availability and capability contracts,” IFS CEO Alastair Sorbie said in a company statement. “The industry has a lot to gain by improving the turnaround times by introducing more sophisticated planning,”
Northstar Aerospace plans divest its non-core business to focus on manufacturing gears, transmissions and related components. No potential buyers had been identified at press time for Pratt & Whitney repair operation Northstar Aerospace Turbine Engine Service Group, in Stroud, Okla., worth an estimated $15 million, or remaining processing operations at Northstar's Cambridge, Ontario, site. Facilities
Airbus picked Rockwell Collins to provide its Dispatch program for full life cycle service for 19 leased A330 aircraft to be delivered to Singapore Airlines next month. Singapores six in-service A380s, plus the additional seven firm and six option aircraft it has on order, also are covered by a Dispatch service plan, per a 10-year contract signed in August 2007. This cost-per-flight-hour deal marked the entry of Rockwell Collins Dispatch program into Asia-Pacific.
Malaysia Airlines and ATR signed a $27 million global maintenance deal to provide the carriers two subsidiaries with spare parts and maintenance services. The seven-year GMA covers repairs of equipment and line replaceable units plus a spare parts inventory for new ATR72-500 aircraft in the fleets of MASwings and Firefly.
Air France opened its new H6 hangar at Paris’s Charles de Gaulle airport in late November. Air France built the 25,800-sq.-meter hangar to maintain an A380 and two medium-haul aircraft simultaneously.
Haggan Aviation received an FAA Supplemental Type Certificate for Universal Avionics WAAS/SBAS Flight Management Systems in the Learjet 60. Parts/Components
Caribbean Airlines plans to launch a technical apprenticeship program this year to recruit and train maintenance workers, following recent moves to bring MRO back in-house. In July, the Trinidad and Tobago-based carrier finished its first “in-sourced” C check on a Boeing 737-800NG, and it finished up a second in late November. [See Interview, p.14 for more on Caribbean Airlines.]
Soloy Conversions , to install a Rolls-Royce 250-B17F/2 series engine with a Hartzell Model HC-B3TF-7A/T10173FN(K)-11R propeller on Cessna 206 and T206H aircraft, STC SA01878SE
Jet Aviation has supported business aircraft in the Middle East since 1967 from its maintenance and completions services center in Basel. In the early 1980s, the company established fixed base operations (FBO) in Riyadh and Jeddah, and in 2005, it opened an aircraft maintenance and FBO at Dubai International Airport. And now, as a wholly owned subsidiary of aerospace giant General Dynamics (GD), it is expected to further grow its operations in the Middle East.
The Federal Aviation Administration closed a chapter in its 10-year effort to improve digital flight data recorders on Boeing 737s with a final rule that exempts all legacy aircraft and saves operators potentially hundreds of millions of dollars in retrofits. The final rule, which takes effect Feb. 2, increases the number of digital flight data recorder (DFDR) parameters required for Boeing 737s produced after Aug. 18, 2000, and prohibits deviations from flight recorder requirements for all aircraft operated under Part 125.
Incorporated in the Republic of Trinidad & TobagoJanuary 2007: Operational launchOperational hub: Piarco International Airport, Trinidad, West IndiesCorporate headquarters: Iere House, Golden Grove Rd., Piarco, Trinidad, West IndiesAirline code: BWChief Executive Officer: Philip SaundersStaff: 970 employeesFleet data: Five Bombardier Dash 8-300 aircraft and eight Boeing 737-800 aircraftOn-time performance: 89% (January-October 2008 average)
The U.S. Army Aviation Missile Command (AMCOM) awarded DynCorp International a firm fixed-price contract in November, for Kuwait Air Force (KAF) support with a Maintenance Augmentation Team for its 16 Apache AH-64D attack helicopters. The contract is valued at about $11.2 million for the first two years, increasing to more than $16 million if an option year is exercised, to extend the contract through Dec. 31, 2011.
Embraer will implement Quantum Control ’ s enterprise resource planning software for its new U.S. Embraer Executive Jets service centers, set to open this quarter. The OEM also uses Quantum software at its Windsor Locks, Conn., and Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., executive jet service centers.
Nordam promoted Meredith Siegfried to COO of its repair group, responsible for worldwide MRO operations. Siegfried previously served as VP of global sales and North American operations (MRO). Her promotion was part of a management reorganization that saw Bill Preacher named to succeed Ken Lackey as CEO of Nordam, effective Jan. 1. Hastings Siegfried was named COO of the Nordam Transparency division in Tulsa and Nordam Transparency Europe Ltd. in the U.K., and Raymond (Tray) Siegfried III was elected vice chairman of Nordam.
Eurocopter subsidiary Australian Aerospace, MTR (a joint venture of MTU Aero Engines, Turbomeca and Rolls-Royce) and Turbomeca Australasia together will provide through life support for the Australian Army’s new fleet of Tiger (ARH) Armed Reconnaissance Helicopters. Under the contract, MTR will provide technical, logistics and supply support services for the Tiger's MTR390-2C engines, and Turbomeca Australasia's in-country repair center in Bankstown, Sydney, will provide deeper maintenance services.
SriLankan Airlines finished rolling out Miro Technologies’ AuRa suite of enterprise management and business intelligence maintenance, engineering and materials management modules across its maintenance and engineering department. The implementation process took less than six months after initial evaluations.
Houston Precision Fasteners was approved by Boeing IDS for PH13-8Mo, Inconel, A-286 and alloy steel bolts and screws under the 3M and ST3M standards. HPF currently is in the process of qualifying for titanium fastener approval, which should be complete by the end of the first quarter of 2009.
