Lufthansa Technical Training and Airbus Industrie will jointly produce a training manual for United Parcel Service covering the Airbus A300-600F's electrical system, airframe, avionics and engine interface. The manual will be supplemented with multimedia elements for digital use. The A300-600F will enter UPS' fleet in July.
Pratt&Whitney has adopted Robotic Vision Systems, Inc.'s (RVSI) Data Matrix two-dimensional symbology for on-parts marking of engines. Also, P&W will use RVSI's MXi hand-held imager to read those parts.
Northrop Grumman was awarded a $138 million Foreign Military Sales contract in November for upgrade kits, integrated logistics support and sustaining activities for Egyptian Air Force E-2C Hawkeye AEW&C aircraft. Egypt took delivery from 1987-1993 of six Grumman E-2Cs, which will now be upgraded from their original Group 0 export standard by Northrop Grumman at its U.S. plants by 2006.
Triumph Group realigned its aviation segment into four units, one of which is Aftermarket Services. The unit will consist of: the Component Repair and Overhaul Group, headed by John Brasch, which will consist of Triumph Air Repair, Phoenix, Ariz.; Triumph Air Repair Europe, Lasham, U.K.; and Lamar Electro-Air, Wellington, Kan.; and the Instrument Repair and Overhaul Group, run by Rick Rockwood, which includes A. Biederman, Glendale, Calif., and JDC Co., Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.
With the dawn of the 21st century, aviation MRO companies, not normally known for embracing the new over the tried and true, seemingly are ready to take the next steps in management technology, catching up to less risk-averse industries.
With OEMs becoming more involved with aftermarket support, independent engine service firms are moving to strengthen their long-term competitive prospects, using such strategies as offering support on older engines that are less interesting to the OEMs, offering more extensive component rework and cutting turntimes. In addition, they are offering parts and supplies management to keep hold on their customer bases.
The evolution is apparent in both the language used in the latest set of proposed rules and the tone now being taken by industry participants who, by their own accounts, finally are being listened to by the feds.
PRATT&WHITNEY ENGINE SERVICES It wasn't that long ago that Pratt&Whitney set its sights on doubling engine services revenue to $2 billion within five years. Now, less than two years later, P&W Engine Services already is looking beyond that benchmark. Recently, O&M Editor-in-Chief Frank Jackman talked to ROBERT WEINER, Pratt's vice president engine services, about the OEM's MRO business. Edited for length and clarity.
Sermatech International formed a joint venture with Samsung Aerospace Industries to provide surface treatment services for new and repair turbine engine components. Sermatech Korea will be based at Samsung's plant in Changwon, Korea.
Snecma Services and Motoren- und Turbinen-Union (MTU) will establish a joint-venture ceramic coating facility at Chatellerault, France, in 2001. FlightSafety International won JAA approval as a type rating training organization (TRTO).
GKN Westland Aerospace, Inc., named Thomas Lahey CEO of its Connecticut composites division. Lahey previously was president, Pacific Rim, for Hexcel Corp.
NADEP Cherry Point -- Sole DOD depot repair point (DRP) for the AV-8B Harrier and V-22 Osprey airframes. -- Navy center of excellence for rotary wing aircraft. -- Only DOD DRP facility capable of testing engines in the 715 shp to 10,000 shp range to military specs. ``The real benefits of implementation will be...improved product and service quality, more competitive prices, higher customer loyalty and additional workload.'' CAPABILITES Airframe H-46 Sea Knight
Honeywell will acquire Dallas-based TriStar Aerospace for $291 million. TriStar has annual sales of about $200 million and 500 employees, and provides fasteners, fastening systems and related hardware, as well as just-in-time and automatic parts replenishment and other customized inventory management services.
Aviation Sales Co. named Michael Brant vice president and CFO. Brant previously was vice president and corporate controller for John Alden Life Insurance Co.
Pratt&Whitney Canada is building on the unexpected success of its PW300 turbofan series in the regional airline arena by positioning itself for further market share in the new century.
Rolls-Royce signed a contract with the U.K. Ministry of Defense to upgrade the Pegasus engines on Royal Air Force Harrier aircraft. Deal includes a firm order to upgrade 40 engines to Mark 107 standard for about $200 million, and an option for 86 more at about $380 million. Upgrade will increase thrust on the turbofans by about 10%, to 23,800 lbs.
One Australian and three U.S. groups are competing for the US$318.5 million Project Echidna (Air 5416) electronic warfare self-protection (EWSP) program to equip selected RAAF combat and support aircraft with common EW suites.
Tecstar Demo Systems received a contract from the Warner Robins Air Logistics Center to improve and upgrade the user interface capabilities of their Data Transfer System 6500. It will give users ability to load unique executable files without performing lengthy reprogramming of each system, enhancing aircraft operational readiness.
AAR Corp. won a contract to provide landing gear support and overhaul for Grupo TACA's 42 regional aircraft. Work will take place at AAR subsidiary AAR Tempco Hydraulics in Miami.
Improved synergy and competitiveness are being sought by DaimlerChrysler Aer-ospace (DASA) from its 1998 concentration of all product support activities for large German and NATO military aircraft within its Military Aircraft Division's Manching factory. Since early 1998, these operations also have been shared with DASA's Dornier Flugzeugwerft (DFW) subsidiary, which moved to Manching at that time.
