TNT Airways received the first of 11 converted Boeing 737F freighters from GE Capital Aviation Services in November to replace its existing 737 fleet. The 11 aircraft include nine 737-400s and two 737-300s; these will supplement 10 converted freighters TNT now leases from Gecas to expand its services to Europe. Engines
Chromalloy opened a new office in Beijing, and it launched its website in Chinese. It also announced plans to build a $5 million, 40,000-sq.-ft. ceramic core production facility in Tampa, adjacent to its new casting center. Construction is scheduled to start this year so that the facility can launch operations in early 2012.
Astronautics Corp. of America reissued STC to install Astronautics pilot information displays/electronic flight bags on Boeing 767-200 and 767-300 series aircraft, STC ST01963CH
Airbus and Boeing narrowbody aircraft log very similar reliability data, with MRO Prospector showing that the Airbus A320 family and Boeing 737NGs each record flight completion rates of between 99.83-99.98%. “It’s a neck-and-neck race between the two” in terms of reliability and demand, says Rich Poutier, International Lease Finance Corp. (ILFC)’s senior VP technical services. ILFC owns about 950 aircraft.
Emteq’s LED cabin lighting option ELW83 has been retrofitted on aircraft such as the Boeing 767; Fokker F50, F70 and F100; and the Boeing DC-9. The ceiling and sidewall wash lighting is designed to easily fit into existing incandescent tube locations, and it runs off 115VAC/400Hz aircraft power so that electrical ballasts and power supplies are unnecessary. Emteq’s life-cycle estimate for the LED lighting system is 30,000-40,000 hr. www.emteq.com/cmsdocuments/EMTEQ_ELW83_Wash_Light.pdf
Lufthansa plans to launch the world’s first scheduled commercial passenger flights powered by biofuel in the first half of 2011. The blend of 50% hydrotreated vegetable oil will fuel an IAE V2500-powered Airbus A321 flying daily services between Hamburg and Frankfurt. The flights will begin in April 2011, and continue for a period of six months as part of the Burn Fair research and technology project to study the long-term impact of sustainable biofuels on aircraft performance. Airbus will provide technical assistance and monitor fuel properties.
Austrian Airlines retrofitted its Fokker fleet’s cabins with LED lighting. The work was done at Austrian Technik Bratislava with the help of Fokker Services engineers working onsite. The Fokker Services LED package also is available for retrofit on other aircraft types.
Arinc Engineering Services plans to more than double its Oklahoma City service center with a 62,000-sq.-ft. hangar it will begin building this month. The company says the expansion comes in response to growing demand for avionics upgrades and scheduled depot maintenance, particularly among its government clients.
Lufthansa re-launched inflight internet on Nov. 30, using a service called FlyNet. Lufthansa was the launch operator of Connexxion by Boeing in 2004, a business that Boeing decided to shutter in 2006. FlyNet uses the old antennas installed on Lufthansa aircraft but cooperates with Panasonic and Deutsche Telekom. The airline hopes that it will be able to outfit its eight Airbus A380 with dual antennas that are bigger and lighter than the existing equipment, as well as its incoming Boeing 747-8 fleet.
Happy new year! I hope 2011 is off to a good start for you, and to make it even better, Overhaul & Maintenance presents its first MRO Almanac—full of business opportunities, benchmarks and analysis. We wanted to create a reliable reference package that you can use to develop and gauge your operation.
AFI KLM E&M and Max Aerospace signed a strategic partnership agreement to exchange skills to serve customers in the Indian subcontinent, particularly in component support.
Many airlines are finding it a prime time to retrofit aircraft with light-emitting diode (LED) lights in place of legacy incandescent systems. The environmental and cost benefits of LED lights are well-publicized: less power usage, a longer lifespan and virtually no thermal management challenges. For example, Fokker Services claims that its cabin LED lights last 10-15 times as long as incandescent tubes, while Honeywell Aerospace advertises a 40-80% reduction in life-cycle costs for its navigation lights.
Lufthansa Technik and Wizz Air extended and agreement under which Lufthansa Technik Maintenance International will provide line maintenance and A checks for eight Airbus A320s based in Bucharest, Timisoara, and Cluj-Napoca, Romania for the next five years. As part of the arrangement, LTMI will appoint a fleet manager as Wizz Air’s primary point of contact for technical, commercial and regulatory issues.
Thales has signed a letter of intent with the Commercial Aircraft Corp. of China (Comac) and a memorandum of understanding with China Electronics Technology Avionics, two arrangements that lay the groundwork for a joint venture company that will integrate the Thales inflight entertainment system in the cabin of Comac’s upcoming C919. The 156-190 seat C919 is scheduled to make its first flight in 2014, with deliveries beginning in 2016.
ST Aerospace gained Chinese and Canadian approval to do passenger to freighter conversions on Boeing 757-200s—two separate supplemental type certificates developed based on its existing FAA-approved STC. ST Aerospace made no mention of who its potential Chinese and Canadian customers will be.
With the delivery of next-generation aircraft such as the Boeing 787 and developments in long-discussed technologies such as radio frequency identification (RFID) taking hold, the aviation MRO industry will see a variety of exciting and challenging developments in 2011. Here are the top 10 technologies that O&M thinks have the most potential for changing the aftermarket landscape in 2011 and beyond. Automated Identification Technology (AIT)
OEMs know the value of rotables and are trying to find niches to add to their revenue streams and to provide better customer support. Boeing and Airbus offer rotables exchange programs, although their partner MROs perform the services. In November, Boeing announced a new rotables exchange services program to support the 787 Dreamliner. It is designed to help reduce customer inventory costs by providing access to a Boeing-managed inventory pool of parts.
