Sir Arthur Marshall, founder of U.K.-based Marshall Aerospace, received the ``The Founders' Medal'' from The Air League in recognition of his outstanding leadership for almost a century in the British aerospace industry. Sir Arthur's 100th birthday is 13 days before the centennial of the Wright Brothers' first flight. Some of Sir Arthur Marshall's contributions to U.K. aviation include his development of an ab initio training scheme for the Royal Air Force, and the repair and upgrading of more than 5,000 aircraft during World War II.
SmartSignal partnered with SAP to create a tail-specific predictive maintenance program. The deal combines SmartSignal's eCM software with SAP's software for aerospace and defense. ``With close to 60% of aviation maintenance activities unplanned today, companies are looking to move from reactive to predictive maintenance,'' said Gary Conkright, president and CEO of SmartSignal.
Triumph Group completed purchasing the assets of Parker Hannifin's United Aircraft Products Division in Forest, Ohio. Triumph renamed the business Triumph Thermal Systems and projects the new division will add $17 million for the 10 months of its 2004 fiscal year.
Rockwell Collins Aviation Services received a five-year contract from Shuttle America to maintain, repair and support the operator's fleet of 21 Saab 340s.
Pratt & Whitney Canada won major Fleet Management Program contracts from FlyBe ($41 million), Wideroes Flyveselskap of Norway ($10 million) and Bangkok Airways (13-year) and received a $15-million repair and overhaul contract from Petroleum Air Services of Egypt.
Garrett Aviation is closing The Jet Center in Van Nuys, Calif., and is merging those capabilities with the company's Los Angeles (LAX) facility. Garrett plans to complete the transition by September and start calling the LAX facility the West Coast Center of Excellence. Anthony Sanchez, Garrett director of sales, said the company is creating a ``Virtual Garrett'' team of mechanics who will be based at Van Nuys to perform AOGs and fix small maintenance issues.
As always, the Guide features listings for companies that do airframe work, engine overhaul, avionics repair, landing gear overhaul, work on other major systems and components, and completions and interior refurbishments. Within each of these six categories, the listings appear geographically and within each region, alphabetically. In a change from last year, we've standardized the listings' format in all six categories. We did this to make the Guide more uniform, easier to use and to save space.
Pemco Aviation Group hired Hal Chrisman as senior vice president of corporate development. He most recently was president of Cirrus Advisors, a consulting company.
Dassault Falcon Jet's Little Rock facility broke ground for a 46,000-sq.-ft. paint hangar that will be able to accommodate the Falcon 7X's 82-ft. wingspan. Dassault expects to complete the facility in February.
General Chemical Corp. said its GenSolve 530 stripping agent saved an aircraft maintenance facility $2,600 per fuel tank it maintained because of a decrease in the manhours necessary to do the work and because offewer fasteners and clecos lost during each C check. To clean and inspect fuel tanks, traditionally technicians have to remove as many as 20 to 35 wing-tank fuel cell panels, depending on the aircraft. Technicians then scrape away the polysulfide sealant, clean the panel, reapply polysulfide sealant, then reattach the panel.
United Services named Loy Montes director of maintenance services. Montes most recently was market development manager at United Services. The company also promoted Lance Applegate to general manager of government programs. Applegate, a 20-year United veteran, most recently was general manager for line maintenance operations. They replace Paul Upp, who left United after 19 years with the company and is now Indal Technologies' director of sales and marketing - aviation systems. United Services split Upp's old job into commercial and government programs.
Alcoa unveiled a strategic initiative aimed at redefining the cost and weight performance of metallic structures. Facing stiff competition from composite materials, Alcoa's goal is to provide a 20% weight reduction and a 20% lower cost for metallic components.
Derco Repair Services received a license from Boeing to access maintenance information of Boeing commercial airplane components through the OEM's MyBoeingFleet.com portal.
Derco Aerospace received a 10-month contract from the Royal Netherlands Air Force to upgrade the avionics on its C-130H-30 fleet. Derco will install the upgrades at the RNLAF's facilities. Derco also signed a three-year agreement with Goodrich Turbine Fuel Technologies to stock and distribute its T56 fuel nozzles and related parts. This contract, excluding Japan, extends a contract originally signed in 1996.
Third-party maintenance issues recently have assumed an uncommonly high profile in Washington aviation circles as an association took a long-running battle over instructions for continued airworthiness (ICA) to the most powerful hill in the land, and investigators dug deeper into the January crash of an Air Midwest Beech 1900 (see p. 22). The ICA effort, led by the Aeronautical Repair Station Association (ARSA), has been the more promising development for overhaul shops. As O&M went to press, the U.S. House of Representatives' version of Flight 100 -- H.R.
FLS Aerospace renewed its agreement with Aegean Airlines to provide heavy maintenance checks and component management for the airline's eight Boeing 737s for the next five years.
Quiet Technology Aerospace approved Jet Aviation's Geneva, Singapore, Teterboro and West Palm Beach facilities as service centers for its hush kits in Gulfstream GII, GII, GIIB and GIII aircraft.
