Manuel López Aguilar, executive vice president of maintenance and engineering for Iberia Maintenance, talks about how the MRO plans to grow its third-party maintenance business by at least 40 percent this year, its expansion strategy and potentially getting into 757 cargo conversions. Edited for length and clarity. O&M: Iberia Maintenance's income from third-party aircraft maintenance climbed 40.7 percent last year. What accounted for most of that growth?
Durham Manufacturing introduced a series of 10 ergonomic, stringer-less folding work benches that have a capacity of up to 2,000 lbs. The benches, with four heavy-dusty gussets for stability, feature 14 gauge steel tops with channels on all four sides. Hinged legs can be adjusted in one-inch increments, from a 28-inch height to a 42-inch height above the floor. Optional shelves and drawers can be fitted to any of the tables. Drawers attach to the tops using pre-drilled holes and open and close on ball bearing slides.
Airbus painted the first A380 for Singapore Airlines in 21 days, using 100 painters in four shifts. They used 2,200 liters of chromate-free paint to cover the 3,100 meter surface. Singapore Airlines is the launch customer for the A380.
Business Jet Access appointed John Hayes as director of maintenance for the aircraft charter and management divisions. Prior to joining BJA, Hayes worked at NetJets, including being director of maintenance and manager of quality assurance at the Savannah, Ga., base.
Goodrich Aerostructures won a $9.4 million firm-fixed-price contract to provide forward nose landing gear doors, gridlock design, 300 each; aft nose landing door, gridlock design, 300 each; in support of USAF A-10 aircraft.
Singapore Technologies Aerospace's newest MRO, Panama Aerospace Engineering, inducted its first aircraft, a Copa Airlines' Boeing 737-700, on May 12. PAE will complete a 4C check and modifications on the aircraft.
Crane Aerospace & Electronics appointed Todd Newell as director of operational excellence for the Electronics Group; named Rich Weatherford as vice president of operations for the Electronics Group; announced Ramin Aflakian as vice president of the cabin solutions value stream; and appointed Samantha Ziesel as aerospace group director of customer service.
A show like Aviation Week's MRO conference is an ideal setting to gauge the buzz level of a topic like safety management systems. Right now -- in the U.S., at least -- SMS implementation is voluntary for operators and maintenance providers, and the benefits of a solid program are evident in financial statistics as well as safety and quality data. Sessions on comparable voluntary programs that target process improvement -- like Lean and Six Sigma -- typically draw huge, executive-level crowds at MRO.
Paint and composites preparation might just have gotten quicker and less dusty thanks to 3M Aerospace's new Clean Sanding Disks, which help channel the dust and pull it away from the aircraft part being worked on. This also should create a cleaner, less dusty environment for technicians, according to Paul Neary, MRO market segment manager for 3M Aerospace.
Singapore Technologies Aerospace, with its six overhaul facilities, logged more commercial airframe maintenance man-hours than any other MRO in 2006, but several competitors, including Lufthansa Technik, Air France Industries/KLM Engineering & Maintenance, and HAECO and its subsidiaries are not far behind, according to O&M's biennial survey of the airframe MRO market.
America Air Taxi Aereo of Sao Paulo has been appointed the exclusive Brazilian service center and parts distributor for Fairchild Metro and Merlin aircraft, according to M7 Aerospace, which acquired the assets of Fairchild Aircraft in December 2002 and holds the type certificates for the Merlin and the Metro.
Pratt & Whitney Canada has launched a new Customer First Centre in Quebec from which it intends to deliver an enhanced level of front-line support for its customers worldwide. The center, which is operational 24 hours a day, seven days a week, brings together expertise from across key services, including technical support, logistics, service engineering, engine maintenance programs and warranty.
L-3 Avionics Systems received a supplemental type certificate for the IRIS infrared imaging system on King Air C-90s, as well as parts manufacturer approval for the system. L-3 said it is working on other installation and certification efforts for the system on other platforms, as well.
Outsourcing. Third-party maintenance. Contract maintenance. Regardless of what you call it, the practice of an airline sending out its MRO work to another company again is the subject of intense scrutiny here in Washington. Wariness/suspicion/distrust of outsourcing is nothing new, but the intensity of official Washington's feelings about the subject seems to be cyclical, kind of like the financial performance of the airline industry.
National Defense Minister Gordon O'Connor announced on March 30 a contract award for a Boeing CF-18 advanced multi-role infrared sensor (AMIRS) project. This is part of the larger CF-18 modernization project, initiated in 2001. Mounted on a CF-18 weapons station, the AMIRS targeting pod is a state-of-the-art electro-optic and infrared sensor, which includes a laser designator, laser marker and a tactical data-link capability for enhanced targeting, as well as intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, said Lt. Gen. Steve Lucas, Chief of Canada's Air Staff.
American Airlines Maintenance Services is very serious about growing its third-party maintenance business. It hopes to generate $175 million in revenue from third-party customers this year, compared to $95 million last year.
AAR acquired Brown International, a privately held defense contractor in Huntsville, Ala., that provides engineering, design, manufacturing and systems integration services. Brown will operate as part of AAR's Structures and Systems segment. Brown's primary clients are the U.S. Army, Marine Corps and General Dynamics.
Air Transport Association awarded its Nuts & Bolts honors to three talented people: (left to right) FedEx's Ron Wickens, Delta's Tony Charaf and Heico's Eric Mendelson. Wickens, who won the 1997 Nuts & Bolts award, was honored for his lifetime achievements in maintenance and engineering.
Boeing Aerospace Operations won a $26 million time and material and firm-fixed-price contract from Oklahoma City Air Logistics Center the to provide engineering services support sustaining and non-recurring engineering services to support research and development, aircraft modifications, aircraft maintenance and technical services for Boeing commercial derivative military use aircraft.
In wartime, Lean production techniques take on a whole new dimension. No longer merely a matter saving time and money, Lean saves lives, keeping airplanes up and operating providing critical fire support to troops on the ground.
Southwest Airlines selected Boeing's Maintenance Performance Toolbox for use with its entire fleet of Boeing 737s. Southwest flies 219 Classic 737s and 264 737NGs. Southwest plans to use three of the Toolbox modules: Library, Authoring and Tasks.
