Continental Airline's Orlando facility recently finished installing Aviation Partners' winglets on a second non-winglet-provisioned 737-700. The facility will install winglets on 36 -700s, each of which takes about 1,000 hours. The facility already has completed all 34 existing winglet-provisioned 737-800s and plans to start installing winglets on 49 non-provisioned 737-800s, each of which will consume about 1,500 man-hours. The -800s that were provisioned for winglets each took about 500 man-hours.
Lufthansa Technik and Air France Industries are forming a 50/50 joint venture named Spairliners based in Hamburg with an operations center in Paris. In addition to component support for the 25 A380s ordered by Air France and Lufthansa, Spairliners will offer component support services to all A380 operators. Air France Industries' new component overhaul facility, E.O.L.E., based near Orly airport, together with Lufthansa Technik's component shop in Hamburg, will share A380 repairs evenly.
Rockwell Collins received an STC for installation of its Tailwind 550 satellite television system on Boeing 767-200, -300 and -400 aircraft. Jet Aviation Basel performed the first installation, which allows a 767 aircraft to receive direct broadcast satellite TV channels.
Boeing delivered the second Italian air force (AMI) KC-767A tanker/transport to its Italian partner Aeronavali on May 9, marking the start of local 767 structural and system conversions. These are due for completion by a joint Boeing-Aeronavali team and delivery to AMI in spring 2007. Boeing is expected to perform a similar conversion on the first Italian KC-767A, which was due to begin flight-tests in mid-2005, for early 2006 AMI acceptance.
An estimated $1.1 billion Letter of Offer and Acceptance (LOA) was signed on April 26 for the systems upgrade by Lockheed Martin, as prime contractor, of 189/36 Turkish air force (THK) F-16 Block 40 and Block 50 combat aircraft.
Officials at the Warner Robins Air Logistics Center are rolling out a program that will give the facility's 13,000 employees some extra horsepower to address potential safety issues. The horsepower comes from three wallet-sized printed cards -- one red, one yellow and one green -- that employees and supervisors can "play" and officials have to obey. Among other things, Warner Robins, part of the Robins Air Force Base in Georgia, performs technical orders and maintenance, repair and overhaul services for the F-15, C-130 and C-5 aircraft.
Abaqus announced a new capability called Virtual Crack Closure Technique, a technology that Boeing developed for predicting fracture and failure in laminated composite materials. Abaqus modified it slightly so it integrates with its Abaqus software.
Jet-Care and Spectro extended their Total Healthcare Program for Honeywell TFE731 engines also to include the PW100, PW300 and PW500 series engines from Pratt & Whitney Canada, as well as Williams International's FJ44s.
AAC-American Aerospace Corp. 1301 Saratoga St., De Land, FL 32724 Phone: 386-785-0747; Fax: 386-785-0767 Equipment/Structures Serviced: Lighting; passenger service units Regulatory Approvals: FAA YOAR178X; JAA.4147 AAR Aircraft Services-Indianapolis Maintenance Center 2825 W. Perimeter Road, Indianapolis, IN 46241 Phone: 317-227-5030; Fax: 317-227-5104 AAR Aircraft Services-Oklahoma Will Rogers World Airport, 6611 S. Meridian Rd., Oklahoma City, OK 73159-1104
The Brazilian government awarded two major contracts totaling some ¤560 million ($724.7 million) to Spain's EADS-CASA. Contracts include upgrades of the FAB's eight Lockheed P-3BR maritime-patrol aircraft plus an option for similar work on a ninth. This will include the ¤320 million ($414.13 million) installation of EADS-CASA's Fully Integrated Tactical System (FITS) at its Getafe facility, near Madrid, with participation of Brazilian industry and air force technicians.
Bell Helicopter Textron received a Naval Air Systems Command $104.2 million modification to a previously awarded firm-fixed-price contract for FY2005 low-rate initial production (LRIP) Lot II procurement of three AH-1Z Super Cobras and four UH-1Y Hueys under the U.S. Navy's H-1 upgrade program. Work on these aircraft began immediately at Fort Worth and the new Bell plant in Amarillo, Texas, for completion in December 2007. The first LRIP batch of six UH-1Y and three AH-1Z aircraft, which have about 84% commonality, already is in production at Amarillo.
Business jet owners, who historically are low-utilization operators, are starting to look at fuel savings technologies thanks to high priced fuel. To address this market, Aviation Partners, separate from its Boeing joint venture, certified STCs for its blended winglets on the Hawker 800 and the in-production Hawker 800XP, respectively, in July and December 2004.
Stanford University's financial problems after World War II led to the creation in the 1950s of the Stanford Industrial Park, a large parcel of land in Northern California that the school leased to technology companies. That parcel of land, better known as Silicon Valley, now is the model for the Netherlands' aviation effort called the Dutch Maintenance Valley, which is a public private partnership designed to woo aircraft maintenance, service and technology companies to support European-based F-35 Joint Strike Fighters, along with other aircraft.
Didsbury Engineering's new Purge-Air System is designed for use in maintaining commercial and military fuel tanks. The system is designed for confined space entry and can be used by technicians when they are draining residual fuel, ventilating fumes and maintaining and inspecting the tanks. The system includes breathing apparatus, communications, gas detection, lighting, rescue equipment and training -- all of which fits in an AKH container suitable for transportation on aircraft such as the A320.
Benz Materials Testing Instruments' DFT2100 Demattia flex tester is designed to test fatigue and cracks in rubber, plastics, leather, fiber optics and composites -- so it could be used on anything from aircraft tires to upholstery. The device simultaneously flexes as many as 20 product samples for up to 10 million cycles, with a variable speed from 30 to 300 cycles per minutes. A temperature chamber allows testing from -100 ºC to 150ºC. The company said fixed distances range from 0.25 inches to 4 inches (6 mm to 101.6 mm).
Spurred by a volatile airline landscape and an expected doubling of the leased aircraft fleet in the next 15 years, leasing companies are striking ever closer relationships with the maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) providers that service or monitor their assets to reduce downtime between leases. In some ways, this represents a shift from a hands-off relationship in the past, when an owner's interface with the MRO largely took place in crisis mode after unplanned events -- like repossessions -- or at the end of a lease.
This year's Paris Air Show will be remembered for two significant events: The daily flight displays of the Airbus A380 and the emergence of India as a significant market of opportunity. During the dozens of interviews I conducted, press conferences I attended and meals I shared with industry executives and others, the A380 and India were near constant topics of conversation and speculation.
