Pemco Aviation Group is converting a Boeing 737-300 from passenger to freighter configuration for Titan Airways. Pemco expects to complete the work the end of May at its Dothan facility. Titan also included two options in the contract.
HEICO named Surin Malhotra president of its Inertial Aerospace Services and Inertial Airline Services operations. He most recently was president of Norco.
Timken became the sole supplier of bearings for the Rolls-Royce Model 250 engine line at the end of the first quarter under a three-year agreement with the OEM. Timken previously supplied 27 bearing part numbers but now will provide 38.
Flyglobespan, Scotland's new no frills airline, signed a five-year $1.2 million contract with FLS Aerospace for maintenance of its two Boeing 737-300 aircraft. Under this contract, which starts April 1, FLSA will provide technical services, component management and line maintenance.
McKechnie Aerospace Aftermarket Group signed a long-term agreement with Virgin Atlantic Airways that makes McKechnie the airline's exclusive development partner and PMA parts supplier for its 38 Airbus A340 and Boeing 747-400 fleet.
With many U.S. military aircraft expected to operate for decades and with new airframes representing only a small fraction of the fleet for the foreseeable future, Honeywell has set its sights on the military modifications and upgrades market. An aircraft's life expectancy in the U.S. military is 40 years, and ``new aircraft represent only 1.5% to 2.5% of fielded inventory'' from 2004 to 2013, said Nasos Karras, Honeywell vice president of military and helicopter propulsion engines, systems and services.
AMETEK Aerospace's AM-250 barometric altimeter, jointly developed with Honeywell, can be used in new and retrofit applications for corporate aircraft flying between 29,000 ft. and 41,000 ft. in RVSM applications. This dual altimeter system features two solid-state LCDs to indicate barometric offset in hectoPascales or inches/millimeters of Hg. It is TSO approved. AMETEK Aerospace, 50 Fordham Rd., Wilmington, MA 01887 Circle 510 on Reader Service Card
By Carole Shifrin ( SAO BERNARDO DO CAMPO, BRAZIL)
Increasing efficiency, attractive labor costs and sound performance have spurred a substantial growth in business at Rolls-Royce Brasil, the engine maker's overhaul and repair facility in So Bernardo do Campo. The company has been doing business in Brazil for nearly 45 years, starting with overhaul and repair of the Dart and Avon engines, but its workforce and portfolio have been growing and its facility is undergoing vast change -- both physically and in how the workforce performs its tasks.
Dynamic Gunver Technologies received a $11.7 million contract from the U.S. Air Force to provide 5,434 nozzle augmentors for F100-PW-220 engines maintained at Oklahoma City Air Logistics Center, Tinker Air Force Base.
Linear Precision Products, a division of RBC Bearings, introduced extra-long custom ball screws, including one that is 64 ft. long, which was used in a testing facility. Another large screw the company recently completed was 45 ft. long and 8 in. wide. That one was for a 10-ft. long hollow ball screw with a 4-in. lead. Linear Precision Products, RBC Bearings, 60 Round Hill Rd., Fairfield, CT 06824 Circle 513 on Reader Service Card
CFM received more than $4.5 billion worth of orders for CFM56 engines in 2003, received JAA certification for the CFM56-5B acoustic upgrade package for the Airbus A321, reported the CFM56-7B-powered Boeing 737 fleet logged 25 million engine flight hours in six years, and announced the CFM56-3C holds the world record for initial time on wing: 40,728 hours and 17,504 cycles.
Garrett Aviation and D&D Aviation Services are partnering to provide RVSM packages that include all elements needed to obtain a Letter of Authorization.
AirTran Airways awarded Bedek Aviation Group a multi-year contract to maintain the airline's 75 Boeing 717 landing gear and certain components. Bedek, a division of IAI, has had maintenance contracts with AirTran since 1997.
Pemco Aviation Group and Malaysian Airline System (MAS) announced a strategic alliance to pursue aircraft cargo conversions in Southeast Asia. By partnering, the companies can offer in-region conversion services at MAS' facilities in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, through Pemco's STC for the Boeing 737-300 conversions. ``More and more, our customers are requesting conversions be completed in their region,'' said Hal Chrisman, senior vice president of corporate development for Pemco.
Brazilian carrier TAM expects to begin offering third-party maintenance services on Airbus aircraft for the first time in 2005. The carrier, the second largest in Brazil, has been performing its own maintenance, through D checks, on its fleet of Fokker 100, Airbus A319/320 and A330 aircraft at its expanding technical facilities. Up to now, according to Ruy Amparo, TAM's technical and operations vice president, TAM has needed its overhaul and maintenance capacity for its own fleet. But soon, it will be in a position to offer services to others.
Snecma Services is training TIMCO personnel to work on a half-dozen variants of the CFM56: the -2, -3, -5A, -5B, -5C, and -7. The on-wing maintenance program is designed to take full advantage of the powerplants' modularity. That means TIMCO technicians will be able to perform: -- Part replacement: Accessory gearbox, transfer gearbox, acoustic panels; the mapping, repositioning, change and lubrication of fan blades; fuel nozzles, LRU changes. -- Borescope inspections and blending.
A dynamic shift is taking place in the air freighter market as older aircraft reach obsolescence, and air cargo traffic growth is expected to outpace that of passenger boardings over the next 20 years. This means that for more cargo haulers, fleet planning decisions are at hand. Sweetening the pot is the fact that since Sept. 11, 2001, reduced passenger airline flying has made younger airliners more affordable for conversion to freighters.
Precision Conversions promoted John Crawford to vice president of production. He has more than 22 years of technical aircraft experience, including 11 years with TIMCO.
Alteon Training opened a $75 million training center for maintenance and pilot training courses at Atlanta Hartsfield airport that initially will serve AirTran Airways, Midwest Airlines and Boeing Business Jet operators.
Bombardier Aerospace appointed Gary Scott president of new commercial aircraft programs. He most recently was group president at CAE and before that, president of FlightSafetyBoeing (now a 100% Boeing subsidiary called Alteon).
Boeing in St. Louis received a $61.8 million U.S. Navy contract in February for a second low-rate initial production (LRIP) run of the Raytheon APG-79 Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) radar for its F/A-18E/F Super Hornet and E/A-18G combat and electronic warfare aircraft. The AESA radar is part of the F/A-18E/F Block II upgrade, which includes integration of advanced mission computers, high-speed data network, cockpit controls and displays, environmental control system upgrade and forward fuselage affordability improvements.
The Bush administration nominated Deborah Hersman to replace John Goglia on the National Transportation Safety Board for the duration of his term that expires on Dec. 31, 2008. Hersman currently is a senior Democratic staff member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation.
American Eagle started operating at its new Northwest Arkansas Airport maintenance base on March 1. The carrier will perform routine overnight maintenance and repairs on its CRJ-700 fleet there. By yearend, Eagle plans to grow employment to 60 from its current 20 there.
U.S. Congress' four-year authorization of the FAA budget, dubbed ``Vision 100'' and enacted in December 2003, contains a provision that could bring big headaches down the road for foreign repair stations, according to the Aeronautical Repair Station Association (ARSA). Section 611 of the law directs the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) to issue regulations ensuring the security of both U.S. and foreign repair shops by early August. Largely at the urging of U.S.
