Bill Burchell, O&M’s European Editor (Commercial) raises some interesting questions about accountability in his Viewpoint on p.104. The French government is holding several individuals, including a mechanic, accountable for the July 2000 crash of a Concorde outside Paris by charging them with criminal offenses.
The Aviation Suppliers Association appointed Robert V. Hogan to its board of directors. Hogan is director of commercial serviceable assets and customer solutions, part of Pratt & Whitney’s Global Service Partners network.
Bombardier plans to open a U.S. nacelle component repair station for Airbus and Boeing narrowbodies in Dallas. The manufacturer expects the facility to be open in 2009, and said it will function as an expansion of third-party product repair work already conducted at a facility in Belfast, North Ireland.
Rolls-Royce is to supply Asiana Airlines with Trent XWB engines for 30 firm and 10 option Airbus A350 XWB aircraft, covered by a long-term TotalCare deal. Asiana will be the first Korean customer for the Trent engine. Rolls also announced total care agreements with Qatar Airways and Jet Airways to support their Rolls-powered Airbus A340 and A330 aircraft (respectively.)
Gulfstream appointed Todd Strong director, engineering and quality, for its Long Beach, Calif., facility, where he will manage final phase engineering, service center engineering, designated alteration station, quality control and quality assurance functions and personnel.
International Communications Group (ICG) in July began producing its new NxtLink 120A and 220 Iridium communications systems. The 120A, a single-channel transceiver, combines two Iridium transceivers with an internal CTU that allows a regular telephone connection for voice and data. It’s a logical choice for flightdecks that demand MCDU dialing services and direct audio control panel connection, as well as require a dedicated voice channel, ICG says.
As the airlines continue to be roiled by high fuel prices and a slowing world economy, parts support has been cited, by an increasingly lean industry, as one of the few remaining places where there still may be fat to trim. Increasingly, that means off-loading more, if not all, of the parts management business onto OEMs, parts houses and third-party logistics services providers.
United Airlines named Jim Keenan SVP of United Services . Keenan returns to United after six years at Pratt & Whitney, where he was VP and general manager of Pratt & Whitney Global Services Partners. Keenan, who previously spent 14 years at United, will report to SVP Operations Joe Kolshak. United also named Timothy Canavan VP of maintenance and aircraft appearance, responsible for its line maintenance and aircraft appearance teams.
AMT’s Flightman Fuel Performance Analysis module became available in mid-July. The module, which has been implemented by bmi, collects, records and analyzes fuel uplift and usage data and can be installed as an add-on to the Flightman suite or as a standalone application.
FINLAND Maintenance of Finnish Air Force Fokker F.27 and EADS CASA CN-295 turboprop transport aircraft has begun at Patria’s facilities, including a new operations hangar at Jyväskylä Airport in Tikkakoski, due to open in the fall. Patria is a defense and aerospace group owned by the Finnish government and EADS. Patria also provides Finnish Air Force elementary flight training in Tikkakoski, plus support of its Vinka and Redigo aircraft.
The warehouse often is the last link in the supply chain. But what goes on inside the four walls can determine the success of repair operations. Three years ago, helicopter engine manufacturer Turbomeca USA began implementing Lean processes in its maintenance, repair and overhaul operations in Grand Prairie, Texas. As the company improved the shop floor processes directly related to engine repair, it noticed that its warehousing and logistics processes weren’t keeping pace. That, in turn, was slowing progress in Turbomeca’s push for improvement.
SkyBOOKS, a Bell Helicopter and Textron company, signed multi-year service contracts with Houston-based Gulf Coast Aviation, RVA Air Charter in Fort Worth, Texas, Atlanta-based Helicopter Express and the Jacksonville, Fla., sheriff’s office to provide its electronic-based system for maintenance programs, flight and pilot logs and other tracking systems, including warranty tracking capabilities.
LONDON—Accountability comes with the job if you’re an aircraft engineer, mechanic or technician. For such is the safety culture in civil air transport that the source of errors, malpractice or poor processes must be hunted down to eradicate repeats. It’s therefore a concern that four engineers and a mechanic are due to stand trial for manslaughter over the Concorde crash at Charles de Gaulle that killed 113 people in July 2000.
A long-life replacement reading lamp for Airbus aircraft from Welch Allyn Lighting Products claims to offer 2.5 times the life of current equipment. The lamp, P/N 998502-18, has received U.S. FAA PMA approval for Airbus models A319, A320, A321, A330 and A340 aircraft as a replacement for P/N 8GH005678-06.
Airbus created a three-phase approach to manage its end-of-life aircraft—develop a sustainable aircraft dismantling process, set up an aircraft decommissioning center that incorporates these environmentally friendly techniques, and establish a network of authorized end-of-life centers around the world.
AeroTurbine Aviation Suppliers Association Boeing ELG Metals Europe Aviation GJD Services Honeywell Aerospace Trading Magellan Group Pratt & Whitney Rolls-Royce Snecma Southern California Aviation The Green Airliner Volvo Aero Services Washington Aviation Group *As of Aug. 19
IAI Bedek is to convert four Boeing 737-400s owned by an affiliate of leasing company Aircastle into special freighter aircraft under a new contract. Work on the first of these is slated to begin in the third quarter of this year. Bedek additionally is under contract to convert two 747-400s for Aircastle.
FRANCE The French Defense Ministry’s SIMMAD (Structure Intégrée de Maintien en Condition Opérationnelle des Matériels Aéronautiques de la Défense) department notified Sabena technics in June that it had been attributed four/five-year maintenance in operational condition contracts for several l’Armée de l’Air (AdlA) transport and support aircraft. These include five light turboprop DHC-6 Twin Otters and nine twin-turbofan Dassault Mystère XXs, plus an NTI 3 maintenance and component repair contract for Aéronavale’s 41-strong Embraer EMB-121AN Xingu fleet.
Indonesia’s transport ministry in early June definitively suspended the air operator certificate (AOC) of Adam Sky Connection Airlines. It also suspended the AOCs of five other carriers due to failure to meet minimum safety standards, according to a statement issued by the Departemen Perhubungan.
Aero Precision Industries and Dermond Defense & Aerospace formed a strategic alliance, combining their capabilities and sales teams to support international military customers in expanded territories, said API representative Ertugrul Turhal. API, a stocking distributor of aircraft OEM parts, hopes to gain from DDA’s logistical support experience, while DDA says it aims to benefit from API’s knowledge of global military markets.
AerCap in late July became launch customer for a new Airbus freighter, after signing a contract to convert 30 of its Airbus A320/A321 passenger aircraft with Airbus Freighter Conversion GmbH. The aircraft will be known as A320/A321P2Fs, the first of which is expected to be ready in 2011. AFC will ramp up to 30 conversions a year after that, to convert about 400 between 2012 and 2026. The conversions will be done by Irkut Corp. A platform for the P2F conversion is being prepared in Zhukovskij, a Russian aerospace center.
Dallas Airmotive hired Jay Randall as a regional engine manager for the Northeast U.S. Randall will provide sales and technical assistance on Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A, JT15D and PW500 engines. He most recently was maintenance manager for aircraft sales and acquisitions at Flight Options.
The unit operates on batteries and is machined of solid aluminum, with a hard anodized coating for wear resistance. It also features a sealed push button keypad, large LCD display and a serial/USB interface to connect to a laptop or PC for analyzing and plotting data. Pinpoint Laser Systems, 56 Pulaski St., Peabody, MA 01960
