O&M: How would you describe Vector today? O’Shea: We have three bases in Canada. In Vancouver, the Richmond facility handles helicopter engines and dynamic components, and Langley does airframes and avionics. On Prince Edward Island we have Atlantic Turbines, a Pratt & Whitney shop for fixed-wing engines, which now has been rebranded to Vector Aerospace Engine Services Atlantic. That said, we always wanted strategic opportunities to grow outside Canada and the U.S., so Europe was the obvious option.
British company Fire Fighting Enterprises offers a new type of optical beam smoke detector equipped with a motorized auto-alignment feature. The detector can be retrofitted, said Peter Bangham, a press representative for the company. Bangham said that the devices are designed to need minimal wiring compared to normal “point” detectors, since one beam unit can safely cover an area that would need 15 point units. Fire Fighting Enterprises Ltd, 9 Hunting Gate, Hitchin, Herts, U.K. SG4 0TJ
Take a money-losing MRO, add the sudden departure of its CEO and the loss of business, and the rumors start flying like plates at a Greek wedding. Example: the company is up for sale, desperately seeking partners or about to go out of business. Such was case with Montreal-based ExelTech Aerospace, whose CEO Derek Nice resigned this summer as chairman and CEO. Also finding the exit was CFO Roland Blais.
The Bell-Boeing Joint Project Office received an $18.1 million modification to a previously awarded cost-plus-incentive-fee contract to exercise an option for engineering and logistics services for MV-22 Total Life Cycle logistics support.
Pratt & Whitney named Todd Kallman president of its newly formed Commercial Engines & Global Services organization, which encompasses former Commercial Engines, Global Service Partners and Global Material Solutions. Kallman has headed P&W’s commercial engines business since 2006. Matthew Bromberg, former VP and GM of Global Material Solutions, now is VP, product line management for Commercial Engines.
AeroLogic chose Boeing’s web-based Maintenance Performance Toolbox and Airplane Health Management to support its 777F maintenance documentation. The carrier, a 50/50 joint venture of DHL Express and Lufthansa Cargo, will use AHM to monitor its Boeing 777 freighters. The product is designed to be a real-time fault management tool to identify maintenance needs and communicate with ground teams.
Certain Pratt & Whitney PW2037 engines should be removed from service for recurring inspections to prevent possible uncontained engine failure, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) urged in a letter to FAA on Oct. 16. The NTSB recommends FAA enact regulations that: • Require that Pratt & Whitney PW2037 engines be removed from service for inspection of the 2nd stage turbine hubs when they have accumulated significantly fewer hours and/or cycles than the incident engine (10,880 hours and/or 4,392 cycles).
SH&E added Andreas Britz and David Hinderland as new principals. Britz joins the aviation consultancy’s technical services area in New York, following 25 years at Lufthansa Technik. Hinderland, who spent 19 years with Southwest Airlines, will join SH&E’s Boston office.
Virgin Blue signed a six-year GE OnPoint agreement to cover the maintenance and overhaul of all CFM56-7B engines it operates, along with those of its international carrier Pacific Blue. The agreement is valued at up to $300 million.
Three Lockheed Martin C-5M Super Galaxy RERP test aircraft successfully completed developmental flight tests, which paves the way for redelivering the three aircraft (one former C-5A and two C-5Bs) to the U.S. Air Force in support of operational test and evaluation, due to begin in late 2009. The three heavy-lift transports participating in the U.S. Air Force’s Reliability Enhancement and Re-engining Program (RERP) underwent tests for performance verification of the propulsion system, utilities and sub-systems, flight controls, airframe and avionics systems.
Flightparts is establishing a facility in Xiamen, China . Flightparts Xiamen Component Services is to have full capabilities to overhaul narrowbody landing gear, hydraulic, pneumatic and flap components for Boeing and Airbus aircraft. It should receive China Civil Aviation Authority approval by December, and expects to receive U.S. FAA approval by the second quarter of 2009.
Northrop Grumman received a U.S. Navy contract on Aug. 12 to upgrade Grumman E-2C AEW&C aircraft for Egypt’s Hawkeye foreign military sales program. Under this $38 million contract, the six Egyptian Air Force E-2Cs will be refurbished and upgraded to Hawkeye 2000 (HE2K) configuration, with upgrades to the radar, mission computer, tactical mission-system displays and navigation systems. Aircraft modification work will be performed at Northrop Grumman’s St.
Boeing’s San Antonio military aircraft maintenance, modification and upgrade facility earned an ISO 14001 certification, and is the company’s first Integrated Defense Systems (IDS) site in 2008 to validate its environmental management system. Boeing is working to have all of its major manufacturing facilities certified to the ISO 14001 standard by the end of the year. Four other Boeing facilities—Exmouth in Australia; Everett, Wash.; Portland, Ore.; and Salt Lake City—already have achieved the certification.
Maintaining the Boeing F/A-18 represents a $100 million product line this year for the Fleet Readiness Center Southwest, which plans to churn out about 110 Hornets, including 45 planned maintenance intervals (PMIs), 15 center barrel replacements and 10 crash or battle damaged repairs—the rest will be field site repairs and modifications.
For shipping share parts and other valuable mobile assets, Storopack developed FOAMplus, an integrated system that produces custom-sized, protective foam packing material. The system’s central machine, the FOAMplus Bager, measures about 80 cm-by-80 cm at its base and is 200 cm tall. It attaches to two 200-liter metal barrels, which contain polyol and an isocyanate. The machine can be preprogrammed so that the dose of foam components it dispenses fits perfectly into a film bag.
: Boeing received an indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity, fixed price U.S. Department of Defense contract totaling $42 million in August. This will provide the Radar System Improvement Program capability to be installed in the five Royal Saudi Air Force Boeing E-3A AWACS airborne early-warning jet aircraft. This effort supports foreign military sales to Saudi Arabia, for which $27.3 million has so far been obligated.
Embraer’s new spare parts warehouse in China was certified by the ANAC , Brazil’s civil aviation authority. The certification enables technicians at the facility to issue spare part airworthiness certificates through the facility’s own quality system. The facility is expected to decrease supply chain turntimes in the region.
This summer’s Farnborough International Air Show saw the introduction of a new line of adjustable actuators from U.K.-based Meggitt. The new, motor-controlled modulating actuators feature a closed-loop regulator, which should detect flow, pressure and temperature via sensors. This should produce a high degree of fine-tuning to meet required measurements. Because the system is programmable, it also should allow engineers to change test valve parameters in line with performance requirements on a laptop, making redesign work unnecessary.
For those of you operating in the U.K., the CAA mandates that all AOC operators and associated approved maintenance organizations have a Safety Management System (SMS) in place from Jan.1, 2009, forward. Baines Simmons is holding a three-day course on developing, implementing, measuring and managing an SMS. Baines Simmons says the course is to cover: • Identifying and mitigating unwanted business losses; • Performing meaningful Hazard Identification and Risk Assessment;
ST Aerospace completed its MD-11 passenger-to-freighter conversion program for UPS with the Sept. 3 delivery of the 38th MD-11 BCF. ST Aviation Services (SASCO) carried out the conversion program, which began in April 2001, for UPS. SASCO has redelivered 58 MD-11 BCF aircraft to various airlines to date.
Northstar Network received a follow-on order from Lockheed Martin Aeronautics for 28 shipsets under the P-3 Service Life Extension Program, supplementing the initial award for six ship sets for the six Norwegian Planes. Northstar says the follow-on award will be worth about $4 million in additional revenue over the next year.
