The Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) recently honored China Southern Airlines with a "Four-Star Flight Safety Award" for four million safely-flown hours. Yang Yuan Yuan, CAAC minister, added that China Southern has maintained the longest safety record of any Chinese carrier. The airline currently operates more than 310 aircraft and over 1,300 daily international flights.
GE Aviation's CF6-80E1 engine, which powers about 140 Airbus A330-200 and -300 aircraft, completed one million takeoffs/landings, or cycles. In mid-2008, the CF6-80E1 will include Tech CF6 program advancements, including a new high-pressure turbine airfoil, which should lower maintenance costs, improve fuel burn and enhance operational reliability.
In early August, Indra Sistemas was granted a two-year maintenance service contract for avionics systems on Rota naval base aircraft and rotary wing aircraft, which include BAe AV-8B Harrier V/STOL fighters and Cessna C550 light jet-transports, as well as Agusta-Bell AB 212, Hughes 500, and Sikorsky SH-3D and SH-60B helicopters. Indra will undertake preventive and corrective maintenance, plus updates, of all aircraft on-board avionics and navigation systems, as well as install its customized Galia integrated logistics management system to monitor the fleet's maintenance.
Textron's Bell Aerospace Services subsidiary received a $4.5 million contract award for U.S. Marine Corps Bell H-1 helicopter support. This is the fourth year of a five-year contract to provide field-level support for UH-1N and AH-1W helicopters of the 2nd and 3rd Marine Air Wings. BellAero, via its BA Support Services business unit, provides turnkey technical assistance and maintenance support teams at numerous field locations throughout the world, including support teams embedded with operational units deployed overseas.
Pemco Aviation Group said the U.S. Air Force said three companies are bidding for the new KC-135 programmed depot maintenance contract, which starts in FY08, according to Pemco spokeswoman Doris Sewell. She said the Air Force is due to award the contract by the end of August. KC-135 maintenance is a "bread and butter contract" for Pemco's Birmingham facility, which has serviced the Air Force aircraft for about 35 years, she said. Boeing also is one of the bidders.
Lawmakers on Capitol Hill are in the throes of final negotiations over a comprehensive aviation bill that will set the stage for the future of the national aviation system. The bill would reauthorize the Federal Aviation Administration programs for the next four years, renew the aviation excise taxes or adopt some other funding mechanism to pay for FAA's costs, and address a number of other issues, including some that directly affect repair stations.
Honeywell reduced the repair and overhaul turntimes for its Airbus and Boeing auxiliary power units by more than 30 percent. APU turntimes average about 20 days, compared to 29 days in early 2006.
British Airways selected International Aero Engines V2500 powerplants for its eight new Airbus A320 aircraft and awarded IAE a long-term maintenance agreement. CFM and IAE both competed for the engine contract. British Airways is scheduled to receive the new A320s between 2008 and 2010. The carrier operates 67 short-haul Airbus aircraft -- V2500 engines power 58 of them and CFM engines power the other nine.
Denim Air signed an agreement with Fokker Services for an integrated service package, including component, propeller and landing gear maintenance, as well as expendables, for Fokker 50s.
Eurocopter was awarded an Assessment Phase (AP) contract by the U.K. Ministry of Defense in June, for a Life Extension Program for up to 35 of the RAF's fleet of Westland/ Aérospatiale SA 330E Puma HC.1 helicopters. The program will be based on comprehensive upgrades, including new Turboméca Makila engines, digital avionics and glass cockpits, plus new communications, navigation and defensive systems.
Cryptography Research believes it can prevent questionable parts, informally called "counterfeit" or labeled Suspect Unapproved Parts (SUPs) by FAA, from getting into inventories or onto aircraft. The San Francisco-based firm has plenty of experience preventing fraud and theft in the financial, communication and medical sectors and has started discussions with aircraft manufacturers, according to Vice President Technology Benjamin Jun.
Deflating aircraft tires can be a noisy task. For instance, a Boeing 747 wheel inflated to 195 psi can emit a loud 117 dBA noise when deflating. Kestrel Engineering of Ireland developed a silencer tool that can reduce the noise level to 94 dBA if used to remove the valve core. Within one minute, that level decreases to 86 dBA, and after 3.5 minutes, it declines to 74 dBA. A 747 wheel can deflate entirely in four minutes with the Saf-Deflat-Aer tool.
Lockheed Martin will upgrade radar capabilities for the reconnaissance version of the Japan Air Self Defense Force's fleet of F-15 aircraft, from a new JASDF contract announced on June 19. As part of a Japanese-led team, Lockheed Martin will equip selected F-15s with external advanced synthetic aperture radar (SAR) pods.
Airline mechanics who transition from the Boeing 767 to the 787 Dreamliner will find many of their old tasks significantly reduced, in part because of new materials, including composites, but also because of improvements in systems, which are more capable and less complex, smaller and lighter, and more reliable and more dispatchable, according to Justin Hale, Boeing 787 program deputy chief mechanic. In briefings in Seattle, Hale pointed to numerous changes in the 787, including:
TIMCO Aviation Services is partnering with MacAulay-Brown and Kellstrom Defense Aerospace to offer a C-130 center wing box rehabilitation program. The modification should extend the service life for a C-130 for 35,000 more baseline hours without recurring fatigue inspections or flight restrictions.
Bell Helicopter Textron received a $12.5 million modification to a previously awarded firm-fixed-price contract for the procurement of phases two and three of the Composite Maintenance Trainers (CMTs) effort, to include two UH-1Y trainers and two AH-1Z trainers. The CMTs will be based at Camp Pendleton, Calif., and will be used to train personnel on the repair and maintenance of the H-1 Upgrades Aircraft.
easyJet awarded a 10-year OnPoint Solution service agreement worth up to $1 billion to GE Aviation for the maintenance and overhaul of CFM56-5B and -7B engines powering the carrier's 192 A319s and 32 737-700s.
Goodrich gained its first Airbus A380 support customer. Singapore Airlines awarded a long-term contract to Goodrich to provide asset management services, including component and system maintenance, for 19 A380s. The deal covers primary and secondary flight controls to sensors and evacuation systems. Goodrich's facilities in Singapore, France, the U.K. and U.S. will deliver the asset-based support program.
Snecma Services will overhaul high-pressure turbine models on Larzac engines for the SMA aircraft maintenance department of the French Defence Ministry.
Semler Industries says it shipped the first potable water cabinet designed to meet the needs of the Airbus A380. Semler said the A380 typically will have to carry more than 525 gallons of water to meet the passengers' drinking requirements. Because of that large volume, ground staff will need to fill the water quickly from a single point. Semler said typical water systems deliver 10 to 12 gallons per minute, which was too slow, so it delivered the SIFF-3000-A380 portable water cabinet that delivers 25 gallons per minute.
Euravia Engineering & Supply Co. won a Royal Air Force contract to provide reduced cost of ownership for Garrett GTCP165-1A APUs on Sentry E-3D aircraft. The Sentry Integrated Project Team will support the APU until the Sentry reaches its out of service date in 2025.
SR Technics promoted Felix Amman to vice president of the company's maintenance base in Bahrain. As of Aug. 1, he will run the base that provides aircraft and component maintenance, as well as management and logistics services, for the Gulf Air fleet. Roberto Pace, who joined the company in 2005 as an area sales director in Europe, will succeed Amman in Hong Kong as vice president of sales and marketing for Asia-Pacific. Philippe Erni, who previously was in Bahrain, will become vice president sales and business development for the Middle East and India.
