Rolls-Royce and the U.K. Ministry of Defense's Defense Aviation Repair Agency (DARA) signed an agreement to work together to provide improved integrated logistic support for military engines.
Lufthansa Technik (LHT) received a firm order to complete 10 Boeing Business Jets and options on another 20 BBJs owned by Boeing NetJets, a joint venture of Boeing and ExecutiveJet. LHT will complete four or five BBJs a year for Boeing NetJets beginning in January. First of the 10 completed BBJs is to be delivered by LHT no later than Aug. 15, 2001. All of the BBJs covered by the contract will be completed in a uniform configuration designed for up to 20 passengers, LHT said.
Nasco Aircraft Brake, Inc., Gardena, Calif., introduced a line of replacement brake overhaul components for Russian-built aircraft, including the Antonov An-24, An-26 and An-30; Ilyushin Il-18, Il-76, and Il-86; Tupolev Tu-134 and Tu-154; and Yakovlev Yak-42 aircraft.
Hill Aerospace&Defense LLC, Chatsworth, Calif., has been a awarded a long-term contract from the U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Command for the repair and overhaul of UH-60 Blackhawk helicopter main rotor blade flutter dampeners.
ARINC won a competition to build and modify maintenance training devices for USAF's C-5 airlifters. Work will be carried out under a contract from Lockheed Martin. The trainers will incorporate upgrades of the C-5 Avionics Modernization Program, for which Lockheed Martin is the prime contractor.
Bombardier Aerospace plans to form a joint venture with ExecuJet Aviation Group to enhance customer support services in the Middle East by building a new aircraft service facility in Dubai UAE. The new facility is expected to be operational in the summer.
The Air Transport Association (ATA) quietly dropped its venture into e-commerce, saying that it will instead concentrate on maintaining and enriching its giant databases of parts and pricing. Brad Ballance, ATA's managing director for Spec 2000, told O&M that the association's Spec 2000 committee ``made a strategy decision'' to drop the ATA Marketplace exchange in September; the decision was announced to the Spec 2000 user community in early November at a Los Angeles forum on Spec 2000.
American Aircarriers Support filed for protection during reorganization under Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code. Additionally, the company has signed a memorandum of understanding for the sale of its landing gear division to an unidentified buyer.
Allegiant Airlines recently received its third DC-9 hushkit from ASB Partnership and expects to take a fourth before the end of the year. The latest kit is for a DC-9-51.
Composite Structures, LLC, was selected by The Boeing Co. to produce 300 main rotor blades for the AH-64 Apache helicopter program. Delivery begins in June and includes options for another 300 blades.
Michelin Aircraft Tire Corp. won a five-year, $70 million contract to supply 23 types of naval aviation tires to the U.S. Navy. Lockheed Martin Naval Electronics&Surveillance Systems-Surface Systems will provide supply chain management services. The contract includes options for two five-year extensions.
Bio-Safe Technologies Inc. acquired JustPLANEParts.com, Inc. in a stock-for-stock reverse acquisition, with Bio-Safe acquiring 100% of JustPLANEParts' capital stock in exchange for issuing 6 million shares of Bio-Safe stock to the principals of JustPLANEParts. Concurrent with the acquisition, Mark Kaligian and Ralph Johnson, founders of JustPLANEParts, were added to Bio-Safe's board, with Johnson being named chairman and assuming the responsibilities of president.
Dassault Falcon Jet purchased Atlantic Aviation's Wilmington, Del.-based maintenance facility. The company will retain most of the 220 employees there and use the center as an East Coast maintenance base for Falcon business jets.
Lockheed Martin Aeronautics received a $137.7 million contract for integrated logistics support for 50 F-16 aircraft in support of Foreign Military Sales to Israel. Contract runs through mid-2006, and was awarded by the Aeronautical Systems Center at Wright-Patterson AFB.
Wood Group Turbines, Inc., named Michael Lilley vice president and general manager of its Wood Group Turbopower subsidiary. He previously was vice president of finance.
Flight development recently started at Adelaide in a Royal Australian Air Force General Dynamics F-111 long-range strike-fighter of BAE Systems' new ALR-2002 radar warning receiver (RWR). Developed by BAe Australia, with government support, from funding of more than $A50 million ($29.5 million), ALR-2002 was to have been a key component in Project Air 5416 ``Echidna,'' aimed at producing an integrated defensive electronic warfare suite for a wide range of RAAF combat aircraft and helicopters.
Interactive Entertainment Ltd. will provide its Sky Play interactive games to Emirates Airlines for passengers on long-haul flights. A total of seven amusement games will be installed on 12 aircraft. The number of aircraft will increase to 24 through the initial term of the agreement. Agreement has a three-year term, with renewable options of one year each.
Photograph: Canada's IMP Group won a major technical support and fleet management contract for the Canadian Armed Forces CH-149 Cormorant search-and-rescue helicopter fleet. GKN Westland A $C58 million ($40 million) contract received by BAE Systems Canada in September was the first in a nine-year Aurora Incremental Modernization Project (AIMP), which could eventually involve 19 mission and flight systems upgrade programs costing up to about $C1 billion ($676.5 million).
HANK ENG learned to fly as a teenager in a Civil Air Patrol program. ``I got my pilot's license before I got my driver's license,'' he said. But a love for flight goes back to early childhood, when Eng lived under the flight path of what is now JFK Airport, ``watching airplanes in holding patterns come in, including the first 747.''
EADS subsidiary Sogerma and Northrop Grumman are establishing a joint venture to establish EADS Aeroframe Services, which will seek commercial-transport heavy maintenance at a facility in Lake Charles, La., that will specialize in Airbus products.
FlightSafety Boeing Training International named Pat Gaines executive vice president; Todd Nelp vice president, sales&business development; and Capt. Paul Hinton, vice president, flight training and international operations. Gaines previously was vice president, corporate operations at FSB; Nelp was director, customer support for Boeing Spare Parts and Logistic Services. Hinton was managing director, flight operations.
Severe funding problems, which reportedly have reduced average flight times for all except transport and helicopter pilots to less than 10 hrs. per year and almost eliminated new aircraft procurement, have forced the Russian air force (VVS) to rely on major systems upgrades to maintain its combat aircraft viability. Already greatly reduced from its Cold War peak from retirement of its single-engine MiG-21s, MiG-23/27s and Sukhoi Su-22s, its fighters now also have to acquire multi-role capabilities to fulfill both defensive and tactical ground-attack commitments.
Draeger Safety, Inc. launched the PointGuard II, a microprocessor-based standalone gas detector designed to monitor toxic gases and oxygen in ambient air continuously. The instrument detects toxic levels of CO, H2S, SO2, Cl2, NH3, NO2, H2O2 or EtO, as well as excess or deficient levels of oxygen. Bright LEDs display the target gas concentration, while an adjustable-volume horn and two strobes provide alarm at the point of hazard. At core of the product is an electrochemical sensor the company said was designed for accuracy, stability and long life.
