The use of overhauled rather than new aircraft and engine parts is a valuable method for reducing costs while keeping the product flying. Provided the parts have been maintained and operated in line with OEM recommendations, there is nothing wrong with the approach. Recycling parts also makes environmental and economic sense.
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.
By Kristin Majcher Every day airlines remind us of their commitment to enhancing the passenger experience. Some operators equip cabins with the newest inflight entertainment, mood lighting and lavatories. But the truth is that while some operators go all-out on newer aircraft, many have been reluctant to modify older fleets to offer the same level of comfort—until recently. As airlines rebuild midsize cabins like the Boeing 737 and A320 family after heavy checks, one trend is clear: Old seats must go.
Lufthansa Technik will support Sky Regional Airlines components for its five Bombardier Q400 aircraft under a 10-year agreement. Lufthansa Technik says Sky is its first Q400 customer in North America. The April contract covers more than 110 line replaceable units.
Guangzhou Aircraft Maintenance & Engineering (Gameco) added Norbert Marx as general manager. Marx joins Gameco from Heli-One Inc. in Vancouver, and he formerly held leadership roles at Jet Aviation, Lufthansa Technik and Ameco Beijing. Gameco also named Wu RongXin deputy general manager. Wu joined Gameco in 2008, and has served as CFO for the last three years.
The AC-360 is a fast cure, chromate-free and low-VOC sealant to seal and repair integral fuel tanks and fuselages. AC-360 is fuel resistant and bonds to most metal substrates, including aluminum, titanium, steel and stainless steel. The composition is a thixotropic paste that can be applied by extrusion, injection gun or spatula. The sealant is quick curing at ambient temperatures and does not require baking. Other sealants include the AC-770 for fuselages, AC-251 Class B for windshields and the AC-645 Class B low-density sealant for filling holes and cavities.
O&M's biennial Top 10 lists are the product of queries to dozens of airframe MRO providers in every corner of the globe. We ask them to submit only civil aircraft airframe maintenance man-hours—excluding component, engine, line maintenance, technical support or any other aftermarket man-hour figures. We rely completely on their integrity in providing accurate numbers.
FL Technics signed a three-year agreement with Ukraine International Airlines (UIA) under which UIA will provide base maintenance services to FL Technics customers at its Borispol airport technical center in Kiev. FL Technics CEO Jonas Butautis says FL Technics is considering building a third hangar for aircraft maintenance, potentially in Vilnius, Lithuania; Chisinau, Moldova; at one of Moscow airports; or at a regional airport in Poland.
Boeing expanded its landing gear overhaul and exchange program to cover the Boeing 777-200LR, -300ER and freighter. The program previously covered the MD-11, 717, 737NG, Boeing Business Jet, 747-400ER, 757-300, 767-300ER and 777-200ER.
At one point or another, we all find ourselves looking around the house for misplaced car keys or a business card with an important phone number on it. Usually, these things turn up, and the consequence of carelessness is no more than wasted time. But in a maintenance hangar, forgotten tools can transform into foreign object debris (FOD) that can cause serious damage if left behind in an aircraft.
GE Aviation also gained Air Canada as a customer for its myEngines app, part of the OnPoint Digital Solutions product. Air Canada will use the digital app suites to manage and monitor its GE90, CF6, CF34 and CFM56 engines.
GE Aviation expanded its TRUEngine program to cover the CF6 and awarded the first CF6 TRUEngine designation to Nippon Cargo Airlines' fleet of 43 CF6-80C2 engines that power its Boeing 747 fleet. GE debuted the TRUEngine concept for the CFM56 engine three years ago. Now more than 6,000 engines operated by 62 customers—or 30% of the CFM56 engines in commercial service, GE says—have qualified for the designation.
Commsoft won a deal to provide its Open Aviation Strategic Engineering System (Oases) to Latvia's SmartLynx Airlines under a five-year, 15-concurrent user deal. SmartLynx planned to go live with Oases to manage its eight Airbus A320s in May.
Fokker Services gained Colombian airline Avianca as the second customer for its FLYFokker Take Care flight hour-based component support program. Avianca chose a three-year program to support its 10 Fokker 50 aircraft. Fokker Services also signed a deal in April to provide AerCap with maintenance and C check services, including incorporating service bulletins (A320-57-1154 and 1155), for Airbus A320s.
Monarch Aircraft Engineering and Bluebox signed a memorandum of understanding to develop an embedded inflight entertainment solution based on the Bluebox wIFE (wireless IFE) product, designed to incorporate consumer-off-the-shelf devices and technologies. Parts/Components
Mxi Technologies' Maintenix software went live at LAN Airlines in April. Maintenix replaced LAN'an's legacy VISaer system and more than 20 internal sub-systems.
Chromalloy gained a new VP and general manager: Dennis Orzel, who most recently was COO of PAS Technologies. Orzel formerly has held leadership positions at Triumph and Pratt & Whitney.
A finished aircraft is a good lesson in perspective. A passenger on a long-haul flight may see the Boeing 777 as one finished behemoth, seamlessly constructed as though it rolled off the assembly line in one piece. But an aircraft technician knows that the devil is in the details, working for hours to make sure every fastener, bolt and wire harness is secure after maintenance. Before an aircraft exists at the component level, all of the individual parts must be made from raw material.
Dayton-Granger amended STC to install winglet and horizontal stabilizer end cap lightning protection kits on Bombardier regional jet series 100, 400, 440, 700, 702, 705, 900 and 1000, STC ST02241NY
SR Technics landed its first long-term contract in the Philippines: It will maintain 18 Cebu Pacific CFM56-5B engines in Zurich under a 10-year, $52 million deal. Avionics/IFE
