While the Internet makes finding aircraft parts easier, inventory locator websites still run into entrenched problems. Unanswered requests for quotes (RFQs), out-dated inventory lists and price fishing are issues that established and new markets will have to resolve. Although companies such as Inventory Locator Service (ILS) and PartsBase have dominated the parts market in the past decade, a few ambitious newcomers are encouraging customers to migrate to new platforms with innovative ways of doing business.
GAL Aviation received the AS9100B quality management systems certification by the ANSI-ASQ National Accreditation Board's National Quality Assurance Canada. The certification applies to GAL's production procedures at its 40,000 sq.-ft. interiors facility in St. Joseph de Beauce near Quebec City and its technical services division.
Talk to airlines, OEMs, distributors and MROs about Spec 2000, the industry's communications backbone, and you are likely to hear that the system has been in place for years. “We have Chapter 3 for exchanging purchase orders installed in our IT system and it's managed very well,” says Adrien Guillame, a project manager for logistics services with Air France Industries KLM Engineering & Maintenance.
Wall Colmonoy has added two new management employees to their team. Ed Ridge has been named COO for the Aerobraze Engineered Technologies and Gary Peterson joined the company as operations. Airframes
The Innovative Solutions & Support air data module is a self-sensing, RVSM-compliant digital air data computer that replaces the duplex altimeter system on the DC-9. It has an altitude range of 1,000-53,000 ft., an airspeed range of 40 to 400 knots and a barometer setting range of 22.00 to 31.00 in. of mercury. Aeronautical Radio, Inc.'s standard ARINC-429 messages and the air data module show when a fault has occurred, and the test input sets the outputs to predetermined test values.
Lockheed Martin's Medium Extended Air Defense System (Meads) is facing an existential threat on Capitol Hill. Senators are actively trying to end funding for the system and renegotiate the U.S. agreement to develop the missile with Italy and Germany. Rather than simply push back on the cuts, Lockheed Martin is making a run at the competition, arguing it will cost the government more in the long term to sustain Raytheon's Patriot missile system than to opt for Meads.
Saudi Arabia wants 84 new F-15S strike-fighters to replace some of its oldest F-15s, but it also wants an advanced radar that will be similar to the radar on the F-35 that the Israelis plan to buy. (Photo: Boeing)
The next generation of unmanned aircraft could be today's systems, but linked in ways only now becoming possible, thereby enabling them to perform missions beyond their individual capabilities. Use of unmanned aerial systems (UAS) has grown during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, but as the conflict draws down, services are seeking ways to make better use of their existing assets, recognizing that prospects for new systems are receding as budgets tighten.
U.K. forward operating bases in Afghanistan will be bolstered by the deployment of aerostat-mounted persistent ground surveillance systems (PGSS), following successful clearance of integration issues with the British Army's Cortez base surveillance control system.
"There are concerns expressed by us time and again and we are watching the progress at the other end," one senior Indian Air Force official told AVIATION WEEK.
The next generation of unmanned aircraft could be today's systems, but linked in ways only now becoming possible, thereby enabling them to perform missions beyond their individual capabilities. Use of unmanned aerial systems (UAS) has grown during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, but as the conflict draws down, services are seeking ways to make better use of their existing assets, recognizing that prospects for new systems are receding as budgets tighten.
Legislation in the Senate would impose harsher penalties on those who counterfeit parts and sell them to the military. But the government also needs to change its purchasing methods to keep counterfeits out of the supply chain, says Dan Ellsworth, a member of the board of the Independent Distributors of Electronics Association. The Defense Department and related buyers currently require proper documentation to ensure a part's authenticity.
Few details about the merger are being disclosed, but if approved, it will create a company with more than 40,000 employees and operations to 115 destinations in 23 countries. The combined entity will be named LATAM Airlines Group, although the two companies will operate as separate brands.
The IBS Group appointed Rajiv Shah CEO. He will lead IBS' business providing IT systems to the global air transportation industry. Rajiv's last assignment was with Wipro Technologies, where he was the chief executive of the securities and capital markets business unit and later the healthcare and services business unit.
Ramco Systems launched its new enterprise resource planning offering for aviation, aerospace and defense customers, Series 5 Manufacturing, in April. The manufacturing suite is designed to provide a single solution for engineering, supply chain, manufacturing, sales, service management, plant maintenance, human resources and financial operations.
In the world of modern MRO, complexity layers upon complexity. All these convolutions have to be chronicled—every move, every time. Few industries on earth are so dependent on airtight documentation. To prove regulatory compliance, operators must unambiguously connect the documentary dots.
When an MRO technician shows up to work, how do you know if he or she is fit for duty? Stress, fatigue, hangovers and other threats to safe job performance can be hard to identify, yet the ability to call out these potential threats can have a material impact on aviation safety.
Delta TechOps signed a five-year component maintenance and exchange agreement with Skymark Airlines to provide advance exchange power-by-the-hour services to Skymark's fleet of 25 CFM56-7B-powered Boeing 737NG aircraft. The agreement expanded Delta TechOps' current five-year pact with Skymark, under which it partners with Evergreen Aviation Technologies to provide engine maintenance.
AAR Corp. and Gulf Technics partnered to provide an integrated supply chains and component repair solution for Gulf Air, including parts supply, distribution, IT and logistics. The five-year agreement commenced in April and covers Gulf Air's 14 Airbus A320s, 10 A330s and four A340s.
Tell me about Air Works' transformation that began in 2006. Menon: We commenced the process to invite private equity, diluting our holdings to raise the capital required to fund our plans for the future. Global Technology Investment Group in New York acquired a 33% stake in Air Works, and then we got a second investor called Punj Lloyd Group, which is one of the largest infrastructure groups in the country with business interests spread across the Middle East, Europe and the Far East. We each hold a 33.3% share.
