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.
Air 2000, a U.K. charter airline, signed a pound 31 million, five-year agreement with FLS Aerospace to manage components for its fleet of 18 Boeing 757s.
Jet Aviation's parent company, Hirschmann Industrial Holding Ltd., announced that Rita Hirschmann replaced Moritz Suter as chairman of the board. Jet Aviation Saudi Arabia named Richard Harris its new head of maintenance. He most recently supervised cabin crew and support shops for Saudi Arabian Airlines.
Ray Goldsby, a long-time aviation industry advisor who spent much of his career working to improve MRO, died April 30. Memorials in his name can be made to the UCSF Foundation, American Aviation Historical Society and the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.
Sabena Technics received a full support contract with Martinair Holland to support two Airbus A320s for the Dutch carrier. Contract calls for Sabena Technics to provide engineering and component support, consignment stock, line maintenance and base maintenance, including A checks and C checks. The contract could be expanded to cover up to four A320s.
Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) sent its first of 15 E-6Bs to the Boeing Aerospace Support Center at Cecil Field, Fla., to receive an avionics upgrade. The mission systems and cockpit upgrades are designed to expand data processing capabilities, increase systems reliability and decrease maintenance. This first aircraft is scheduled to be completed in August, and the second E-6B will arrive at Cecil Field in July. All 15 aircraft should be modified by December 2005. The E-6B provides airborne command and control between the U.S.
Rockwell Collins received an STC for installation of its Pro Line 21 CNS radio sensor package on Challenger 601s. These sensors support the transition from voice to data communications and are lighter and smaller than the existing sensors. They can be installed as stand-alone units or as part of an integrated package.
Barry A. Dorfman & Co. unveiled a new website (www.Barrydorfman.com) that allows customers to get quotes online for raw materials such as stainless steel, titanium and aluminum in sheet, bar, plate and tubing.
A new series of compact and lightweight rigid couplings and mating machined flanges for corporate and commercial aircraft jet engine bleed air ducting is available from Voss Aerospace. Voss specifically designed the couplings as an alternative to traditional sheet metal for lightweight compact joints in tubes with diameters from one to four inches. The couplings and mating machined flanges are used with all-metal seals for various bleed air ducting joints for cabin pressurization, environmental and pneumatic operating systems.
Vendors peddling cost-saving products and solutions will be the dominant MRO theme for the 45th Paris Air Show, scheduled for June 15-22 at le Bourget. Salon International de l'Aeronautique et de l'Espace (SIAE), the show organizer, expects about the same number of attendees (306,658) and exhibitors (1,856) this year as in 2001, despite the economic downturn and lingering tensions between France and the U.S. However, based on an informal polling of companies, most were sending smaller contingencies than in the past.
Alitalia Engineering & Maintenance and Lufthansa Technik have agreed to set up a new engine overhaul joint venture that will start in July. Alitalia will have a majority stake in the JV, which will concentrate on CF6-50, CF6-80, CFM56-5 and GE90 engines. The joint venture will be housed at Alitalia's existing engine shop in Rome and will be the workbench for both parent companies, according to an Alitalia executive.
Boeing delivered components for the 67th and last WAH-64 Longbow Apache attack helicopter for the British Army Air Corps ahead of schedule on March 27. Boeing built the first eight Apaches at Mesa, Ariz., from the March 1996 2.7 billion ($4.24 billion) MoD contract and shipped to the U.K. for final assembly by the-then GKN Westland, for delivery to the AAC from March 2000. Boeing also provided partly assembled fuselages and other components for the 59 remaining WAH-64s, assembled under license by AgustaWestland for production completion by April 2004. U.K.
Lockheed Martin started a certified parts program for C-130 Hercules aircraft that will allow authorized parts manufacturers to apply a distinctive hologram on each part. ``The use of the hologram sticker became necessary with the proliferation in the market of C-130 parts with the unauthorized use of Lockheed Martin data and parts numbers,'' said David Posek, president of Lockheed Martin Aircraft & Logistics Centers. ``Recently, a number of customers have informed us that they unknowingly purchased unacceptable parts from unauthorized sources,'' he said.
