Lockheed Martin received two large contracts at the beginning of January: a five year, $423 million contract from the U.S. Navy for common cockpits and a $48.7 million contract for C-5 avionics upgrades.
Rockwell Collins completed acquiring NLX, which provides training systems, upgrades, modifications, engineering and technical services for military and commercial platforms.
Alaska Airlines elected Frederick Mohr to the position of vice president of maintenance and engineering. He most recently was managing director of heavy maintenance for United Airlines.
Honeywell received a 15-year contract from AirTran Airways to provide maintenance on all Honeywell equipment installed on the airline's 73 Boeing 717s. Another contract calls for Honeywell to supply cockpit avionics and maintenance on 50 firm and 50 optional new Boeing 737s the airline has ordered. The contracts combined are worth $300 million.
DaimlerChrysler sold MTU Aero Engines to Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., a U.S. financial investor. MTU said it plans to continue its programs and cooperative alliances.
Mesaba will outsource C checks on its Saab 340s and Avro RJ85s to TIMCO. Carrier will cut 65 jobs at its maintenance bases in Wisconsin and Ohio as a result.
Renegade Ventures' Hamilton Aerospace Technologies subsidiary delivered two former United Airlines 737-200s to a Nigerian start-up airline called Space World. Hamilton purchased and completed the two Boeing aircraft.
Boeing Commercial Aviation Services is helping Lufthansa Cargo convert five MD-11 passenger airplanes to freighters. Boeing is providing the engineering and project oversight, and ST Aviation Services Co. (SASCO), a Singapore Technologies Aerospace company, will provide touch labor. SASCO will start the modification work in June and is scheduled to deliver the first two aircraft in mid-December 2004.
Boeing promoted Louis Mancini to senior vice president of Commercial Aviation Services. Mancini succeeds Michael Dave, who was named senior vice president of airplane programs. Mancini joined Boeing in 2002 as vice president of maintenance services after serving as vice president of engineering and technical operations for United Airlines from 1995 to 2002. Mancini reports to Alan Mulally, Boeing Commercial Airplanes president and CEO.
Texas Engineering Experiment Station, a member of the Texas A&M University System, received more than $4 million to help the U.S. Department of Defense develop, test and implement new technologies for the care and maintenance of aging aircraft.
French Ministry of Defense recently renewed a full support contract with TAT Industries for its Pacific aircraft fleet. The six-year agreement covers CASA CN-235s and PUMAs for the French air force and Falcon 200s and Panther helicopters for the navy. TAT employs 100 engineers in the Pacific to support the French military with airframe, engine and component maintenance.
Innotech Aviation of Montreal has developed and launched an interactive website featuring customer work order tracking programs and a complete parts and spares inventory listing. Address is www.InnotechAviation.com.
Lockheed Martin received a $20 million contract from the U.S. Department of Defense, the Italian air force and the Royal Australian Air Force to collaborate on defining a C-130J avionics and hardware block upgrade program. Known as Cooperative Systems and Software Upgrade Requirements Management (COSSURM), the three-year program will ensure that enhancements and upgrades to areas such as radio communications, aircraft diagnostic displays and collision avoidance systems will be shared across the user community. A total of 106 C-130Js have been delivered to date.
Honeywell also announced an electric APU, the RE50, which weighs only 55 lbs. and is gearless. The APU, for business jet and helicopter applications, is gearless because the generator is part of the APU shaft. Honeywell is designing it to stay on wing three to five years and then be replaced, so it is designed to be virtually maintenance free.
When talking to executives at Grupo TACA's maintenance arm, Aeroman, one learns pretty quickly where they think their operation ranks in terms of MRO providers in the Americas: They consider Aeroman a ``first tier'' MRO, like Goodrich Aviation Technical Services, Timco, Pemco and ST Mobile Aerospace. ``In terms of quality and capability, we're in a league with them,'' said Phil Gaudet, director, North American sales. At least on paper, Gaudet would seem to have a point.
Bell Helicopter's multi-billion dollar H-1 Upgrade Program received a major boost in October when the Defense Acquisition Board (DAB) approved Bell to remanufacture six U.S. Marine Corps UH-1N and three AH-1W helicopters to the UH-1Y and AH-1Z standard during FY04. A second LRIP (low rate initial production) batch, currently scheduled to be another six Hueys and three SuperCobras, should enter production in FY05.
Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. named Sarah C. Hoyt director of corporate communications. Before joining Ball Aerospace, Hoyt was director of marketing communications for Raytheon Co.'s Intelligence and Information Systems business.
Honeywell introduced its latest LTS101 turboshaft engine, the -850, which is designed to provide 14% more takeoff power at sea level and 25% more at hot-day conditions. The -850 can be installed in Eurocopter/Kawasaki BK117, Eurocopter AS350D and Bell Textron 222B and 222UT helicopters.
The debate over how far design approval holders must go to satisfy an FAA requirement for providing instructions for continued airworthiness (ICA) to qualified third-party repair stations may be put to rest soon. FAA is considering a formal complaint against Airbus filed by the Aeronautical Repair Station Association (ARSA).
