United Technologies Corp. appointed David Hess , current president of Hamilton Sundstrand, successor to Steve Finger as president of Pratt & Whitney upon Finger’s retirement on Jan. 1. Alain Bellemare, now president of Pratt & Whitney Canada and EVP for Pratt & Whitney group strategy and development, will succeed Hess at Hamilton Sundstrand. Hess and Bellemare will report to UTC President and CEO Louis Chênevert. Airframes
GE acquired Walter Engines’ assets in July, and plans to insert GE advanced materials and technologies into the M601 small turboprop engine, which has an installed base of 1,547, according to Brad Mottier, VP and general manager of GE Aviation’s Business and General Aviation organization. Doing “nominal upgrades,” according to Mottier, will improve fuel efficiency by 7% compared to the M601F and boost performance through higher temperature margins and increase power up to 800 shp.
AAR Corp. is carrying out mods on six Allegiant Air MD-80s at its Will Rogers World Airport facility in Oklahoma City. Work on the first aircraft began in October.
Gulfstream Aerospace won a firm fixed price contract modification for around $10 million to provide continued fleet maintenance support for nine Gulfstream aircraft owned by the Egyptian government.◗
The Defense Security Cooperation Agency notified Congress in September of a potential $115 million foreign military sale to Pakistan for the refurbishment and maintenance of eight Bell AH-1F Cobra attack helicopters, plus associated equipment and services. Also included are system integration, spare and repairs parts, including their transportation, support equipment, personnel training and training equipment, publications and technical data, U.S. government and contractor engineering and logistics support services, and related elements of logistics support.
Shannon Aerospace will carry out a C check on a LOT Polish Airlines Boeing 767 aircraft in February as part of a program of C checks and inspections it is performing on three LOT 767s this winter. It also started a 12-year check and rib 5 replacement on an Air Mediterranée Airbus A321 aircraft in early November.
Air Force officials issued a Time Compliance Technical Order (TCTO) in October requiring immediate inspection and repair of fatigue-related wing cracks in USAF A-10A Thunderbolt II attack aircraft. This affects about 130 of some 400 operational Air Force A-10s with thin-skin wings installed during original Fairchild Republic manufacture, and is required to ensure their continued operational safety. Later A-10s have thicker-skinned wings.
Royal Jordanian Airlines will implement TRAX Maintenance’s EVO application, a suite of software that manages technical records, materials management and production. TRAX says the Amman-based airline is the second Middle Eastern carrier to pick its software this year.
The number of fatal accidents dropped from six in 2006, to three in 2007, among aircraft registered in EASA member states for commercial air transport operations, according to the European Safety Agency’s 2007 Annual Safety Review released Oct. 7. “This accounts for only some 5% of all fatal accidents [in 2007],”EASA noted.
Duncan Aviation developed and is installing the Duncan Design Shell Kit for the Falcon 50EX, as a refurbishment option following its popular shell kit for the Falcon 50. The new kit features a 1.25-in. increase in seated headroom, new LED lighting, and new ordinance signs.
The grounding, temporary or permanent, of about 1,000 commercial jets will have a major impact on part markets over the next year. Shedding Boeing 737 Classics and MD-80s from major fleets will trim demand for parts, relocate repair work and reduce at least some part prices. The groundings will accelerate the shift of inventories toward asset managers and leasing companies, especially global ones. Cash must be available and shrewd judgments made to exploit opportunities and control exposure.
ASD/ENSA , surrendered STC to install mounting brackets for VOR antenna and APX-78 radar beacon located in the vertical tail tip of Boeing 747 and 747-200B series aircraft, STC SA697GL
Aviation Specialties Unlimited , one-only STCs issued to install supplemental lighting systems on MD Helicopter 369HE, Agusta A109A II and Bell 222 and 407 helicopters, STCs SR01876SE, SR01875SE, SR01866SE, SR01873SE, SR01871SE and SR01874SE
On July 11, 2007, a Delta Air Lines Boeing 757, with 167 passengers, was about to touch down at Fort Lauderdale International Airport when a United Airlines Airbus A320, carrying 133 onboard, pulled onto the same runway on which the Delta crew had been cleared to land. Quick action by the Delta pilot, who executed a go-around, averted a disaster. The two aircraft purportedly missed each other by 100 ft.
Rolls-Royce signed a long-term CorporateCare agreement with private investment management firm Berwind. The deal covers support for Berwind’s BR725-powered Gulfstream G650, which is scheduled to enter service in the second half of 2012. Rolls says it has signed 150 new CorporateCare deals to date. Another first for Rolls: the first Trent engines entered service in Latin America, equipping Avianca’s first of 10 Bogota-based, Trent 700-powered Airbus A330s.
Pratt & Whitney Canada opened a new parts distribution center in Sydney, to serve customers in Australia and New Zealand. Pratt & Whitney Component Solutions also operates centers in Singapore and Amsterdam. The OEM further signed a letter of intent with ITR-Turborreactores, S.A. de CV, to establish the Querétaro, Mexico, MRO provider as a designated service provider center of excellence for Pratt & Whitney JT8D component repair.
SR Technics reached a deal with SAS to do C checks and modifications on the Scandinavian carrier’s fleet of seven Airbus A340-300s and four A330-300s. Work is expected to begin this month and should conclude in April. The work will be performed at SRT’s facility in Dublin. SRT also signed a 10-year Integrated Airline Solutions contract with South Korean low cost carrier Eastar Jet to provide full technical support for the startup’s fleet of Boeing 737NGs.
Hollingsead International , reissued STC to install control column and rudder pedal position sensors for flight data recorder expanded parameters on various McDonnell Douglas MD-11 and DC-10 aircraft, STC ST00743LA-D
Duncan Aviation promoted Brad Lennemann and Doug Donahue to service sales representatives for Embraer aircraft. Lennemann has been a Duncan service sales representative since 2003, and Donahue since 2000.
DAO Aviation gained Honeywell designation as an authorized TPE331 major level service center for the TPE331-1 through -14 series turboprop engine. DAO is based at Roskilde Airport, near Copenhagen.
McDonnell Douglas won a $5.5 million indefinite delivery indefinite quantity technical service firm fixed fee price contract to support additional efforts for the Aircraft Survivability Product Improvement Kit improvement for the Longbow Apache Program-AMCOM. Work will be performed in Mesa, Ariz., with an estimated completion date of Dec. 31, 2010. U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Command, Redstone Arsenal, Ala., is the contracting activity.
