Air Ivoire flies from Abidjan in the Ivory Coast to Paris, Marseille and 11 African destinations. CEO Jean-Louis Hallot is determined to get Air Ivoire on the IOSA registry by the end of 2006. "Our airline has been rebuilt according to JAR concepts, but it is necessary for us to be accredited by IOSA," Hallot said. "African CAAs do not conform to ICAO requirements, so some international organizations refuse to let their members fly on African airlines."
Universal Avionics dealer IFR Avionics received a contract to complete and certify a four-panel EFI-890R suite in a Gulfstream GIII, the first on this aircraft type.
GE Aircraft Engines won a $9.6 million modification contract to overhaul and repair the U.S. Army's T700 engines. The Nov. 21 contract called for the work to be done by Dec. 31, 2005.
Duncan Aviation named Paul Cummings manager of its avionics team in Battle Creek, Mich. He had been assistant manager of the avionics shop there since 2002.
Evergreen International Aviation promoted Brian Bauer to president. Raymond Wright succeeded him as executive vice president of Evergreen International Airlines.
Question: What happens when you equip a bunch of aviation maintenance technicians with snazzy portable PCs in the pursuit of better productivity on the flight line? Answer: Not much.
Welcome to 2006 and the year's first issue of Overhaul & Maintenance. If you'll notice, this is the January issue of O&M as opposed to the January/February issue. That's right, for the first time in O&M's history, we'll publish issues in each month this year. Going to a monthly publication cycle long has been a goal of mine, and the editorial and advertising support that has made that possible is truly gratifying. Thank you to everyone who enabled us to take this big step. O&M Databook
Lockheed Martin won a $98 million time and material and cost-reimbursable U.S. Air Force contract to provide services for C-5 AMP modified aircraft for supply support, engineering and technical support, software maintenance, spares and non-warranty repairs.
Boeing began installing the first of 17 NATO AWACS major mission system upgrades as part of a $1.32 billion Mid-Term Modernization program. EADS, a Boeing subcontractor, is performing the work in Germany and expects to complete in November. The entire fleet is scheduled to be upgraded by 2008.
SR Technics signed a memorandum of understanding with Okay Airways, the first privately owned Chinese airline, to form a joint venture in Tianjin, China. SR Technics already support airlines in the region out of Hong Kong and sees the JV as way to provide a local presence to support the "new paradigm carriers."
Boeing's Quiet Technology Demonstrator 2 program completed a flight-test program that the OEM says confirmed the effectiveness of the program's noise-reduction technologies. Boeing has partnered with GE, Goodrich and NASA. All Nippon Airways provided one of its 777-300 ERs with GE90-115B engines for flight-test activities. The 777 was fitted with eight different noise-reduction engine inlets and exhaust combinations, which provided as much as a two-decibel improvement.
Hong Kong Aero Engine Services Ltd. (HAESL) and Singapore Aero Engine Services Ltd. (SAESL) have signed a new contract with Emirates for the ongoing maintenance and repair of its Rolls-Royce Trent 500, 700 and 800 engines. The new contract, potentially worth $600 million, lasts three years. Up to 200 engines could be overhauled, with the work shared between HAESL and SAESL.
Lockheed Martin received a $7.5 million time and materials contract from the U.S. Air Force to provide for modification of 18 Dutch F-16s to Chile MLU configurations. This includes removing Strike and HARM capability.
Business & Operations 25 Flying in the Face of Adversity The industry weighs the benefits and costs of MANPADS for commercial aircraft. 31 Partnering for Safe Growth in Africa Accident rates are higher in Africa. See what industry is doing. Upgrades & Retrofits Databook 35 Introduction to the comprehensive source of MRO market information and data. 36 Military Upgrades 52 Airframe and Engine Maintenance Costs 53 U.S. Carriers' Maintenance Costs
The United States Space Shuttle fleet may be grounded indefinitely, but the overhaul and maintenance teams have not halted work on the world's only reusable vehicles to carry humans to space. Before the fleet's mandatory retirement in 2010, the shuttles are needed for the U.S.'s role in space and for assisting the International Space Station.
A large number of the Panavia Tornadoes the German Luftwaffe has been flying since 1980 will get life extensions and combat capability upgrades. The group to be upgraded includes nearly half of some 190 interdictor-strike aircraft, 40 interdictor-strike/ reconnaissance and 36 electronic combat reconnaissance versions of the variable-geometry twin RB199-turbofan two-seat Panavia Tornado.
Air Canada Technical Services and Otto Instruments & Avionics, a Honeywell licensee, signed a cooperative maintenance and repair agreement to support airframe and engine components for commercial and military aircraft applications. The two-part deal transferred test equipment underutilized at ACTS to Otto Instruments, so the latter can repair components from ACTS and other customers and pay a royalty fee to ACTS. The agreement also entails Otto Instrument's European office marketing ACTS's capabilities and services in Europe, the Middle East and African.
O&M: How is Avborne fitting into Sargent and Dover? Gibbons: It's fitting exceptionally well. We acquired it in January with the intention of really expanding Sargent's and Dover's presence in the MRO services business. Over a very short period of time, we've integrated it into our business and it's doing exceptionally well in the marketplace. [Editor's Note: Dover is Sargent's parent company.] O&M: How do you measure the performance?
FAA has established the Organization Designation Authorization (ODA) program, revamping its existing organizational designee structure while expanding both the types of functions that it will designate to industry representatives and the organizations that will be designee-eligible. Perhaps the biggest change, from industry's point of view: Designees no longer will be required to work for an organization that holds an FAA certificate.
Midcoast Aviation named Joe Thurman director of the Global 5000/XRS program, Kelly Sepe manager of structural engineering, and Pat Quinn manager of certification/DAS administration. The changes are to accommodate Midcoast's growing Bombardier Global bizjet completions.
Malaysian Air Systems retrofitted three sets of Aviation Partners Boeing blended winglets on Oman Air's 737-800s. Oman Air, the first Middle Eastern customer for the winglets, expects to save about 100,000 gallons (380,000 liters) of jet fuel per aircraft annually.
Lufthansa Technik Philippines started offering heavy maintenance on the Airbus A320 family in October. The arrival of a Lufthansa A320-200 in Manila marked the start of narrowbody heavy maintenance at the facility. The aircraft is undergoing an IL2 check.
Altair Avionics expanded its data analysis services to include data from ARINC ACARS. It also now provides exceedence and event monitoring services using electronic files from on-board monitoring systems, which should help analysts reviewing the engine trend graphs to quickly see exceedence and event data to assess links to shifts in the graphs.
