Lufthansa Technik (LHT) will customize the interior of Atlas Air Chairman Michael Chowdry's Boeing Business Jet. Chowdry is the first customer to opt for LHT's XXL Class concept. Also, PrivatAir will have two BBJs completed by LHT.
Honeywell will supply its TCAS 2000 and Mode S transponders to Uzbekistan Airways, which is installing the equipment in 12 aircraft. Installations are scheduled for completion in early 1999.
STS named Michel Gadbois to head worldwide sales of the Shopfloor 2000 maintenance management software. Gadbois was vice president of sales for Thru-Put Technologies.
Into the world of bigger is better, comes little King Aerospace to say it ain't necessarily so. King Aerospace Commercial Corp. is located in the small Oklahoma city of Ardmore, where 50 employees work at repainting and refurbishing business, private and government aircraft. ``We don't do new, so-called `green,' aircraft,'' said owner Jerry King. ``But we do interiors in older aircraft which make them look like new.''
By the time you read this, there will be less than a month to go in 1998 and we at O&M will be well into the production cycle for our January/February 1999 issue. But before this year slips away completely, I wanted to thank our readers, advertisers, writers and advisors for their continued support. Also, I wanted to recognize the O&M staff for a job well done.
Coltec Industries appointed Roger Wright president of its Menasco Aerospace unit. Wright, previously president of Menasco's Canadian operations, succeeds Peter Challinor, who resigned to pursue other opportunities.
Aviation Group signed a long-term lease to use a three-hangar paint and manufacturing facility in Greenville, Miss. Facility was constructed and formerly occupied by Boeing, and is capable of painting up to 150 commercial aircraft a year.
Photograph: Elbit's MiG-21 Lancer avionics have been installed in a Romanian IAR-99 Soim for lead-in fighter training. John Fricker Alone among the Eastern European countries in the former Soviet bloc, Romania made a decision in 1992 to upgrade its existing MiG-21M/MF and two-seat MiG-21UM combat aircraft. The intent was to extend the useful operating lives and effectiveness of the MiG-21 to about 2015, rather than acquire new Western fighters.
Garrett Aviation Services opened a parts and maintenance support facility in Toluca, Mexico. Facility will troubleshoot and repair minor airframe and engine defects on the line, in addition to supplying more than 2,000 inventory items for engine parts and airframe rotable components and replacement hardware.
Interior modification kits for larger business jets are a new and growing segment of King Aerospace Commercial's refurbishment business. These kits are designed to be installed away from the King Aerospace facility but to provide the same refurbishment and upgrade capability as is available at King's Ardmore, Okla., facility.
FlightSafety Boeing Training International plans to build a new Latin American Training Hub in Miami. The $100 million facility will be FlightSafety Boeing's first all-new U.S. development and is scheduled to open in the first quarter 2000.
BRAZIL: Wisconsin's Derco Aerospace has been selected over Lockheed Martin and Raytheon for a $50 million contract for major structural and avionics upgrades of the Brazilian air force's dozen or more C/KC-130E/H Hercules. Claimed by Derco to be the most extensive C-130 upgrade yet undertaken, the contract includes replacement of outer wings and environmental control system, improved bleed-air distribution ducts, uprating the Allison T56-A7 engines to -A15 standard, and some new avionics.
All but 60 of the 4,700-plus airliners in the U.S. fleet may have to have their insulation replaced with more fire-resistant material, an action that could cost billions.
Hawker Pacific Aerospace won a five-year contract to perform landing gear overhaul and repair for EVA Airways' fleet of Boeing 767s. Separately, Hawker Pacific landed a five-year contract to repair and overhaul Shanghai Airlines' 757 landing gear. Work for both airlines will be performed at Hawker's Sun Valley, Calif., facility.
Napier International Technologies will supply TWA with its line of environmentally friendly paint stripping products. TWA is in the midst of stripping and painting its entire fleet of approximately 200 aircraft, and the airline has placed an initial order with Napier to supply it through year-end. Orders are expected to continue through next year.
FAA Administrator Jane F. Garvey named Thomas E. McSweeny as associate administrator for regulation and certification, succeeding Guy Gardner, who left the agency earlier this year (O&M, July/August 1998). Previously, McSweeny, 57, was director of FAA's Aircraft Certification Service, where he oversaw the airworthiness and safety of all U.S. commercial aircraft design and production.
NASCO Aircraft Brake was awarded a supplemental type certificate (STC) for its replacement rotors for Boeing 727s equipped with BFGoodrich brakes. This is the third STC awarded NASCO.
Kaman Aerospace International has broken ground in Nowra, Australia, for its Helicopter Technical Support Center for the Royal Australian Navy's future fleet of SH-2G Super Seasprite helicopters. Work on the 33,000-sq. ft. facility is scheduled for completion in September 1999.
Lockheed Martin won a seven-year, $2 billion contract to support USAF's fleet of F-117 stealth aircraft. Contract calls for Lockheed Martin to provide logistics support, and runs until late 2006.
A public/private team including Boeing and the Ogden Air Logistics Center (ALC) won a multi-year contract to provide depot-level maintenance on U.S. Air Force KC-135 tankers, A-10 attack jets and assorted components including hydraulics, electrical accessories and avionics. But the contract, the first ever for such a public/private team, may be jeopardized by a lawsuit filed Oct. 13 by Pemco Aeroplex that contends it was not allowed to bid on just the KC-135 portion of work in a combined package of jobs previously done at the Sacramento ALC, McClellan AFB, Calif.
Pratt&Whitney is creating a unified, worldwide service organization, called Engine Services, that will combine the traditional customer support functions and spare parts with the array of services offered by the unit formerly known as Pratt&Whitney Eagle Services. New structure includes the 20 P&W overhaul and repair operations worldwide.
Throughout the Federal Aviation Regulations (FAR), the terms ``approved by'' and ``acceptable to'' the Administrator appear frequently. But despite their regular occurrence, these terms can be interpreted by FAA field offices in many different ways. Perhaps only the concept of major vs. minor repair is applied in as inconsistent a fashion.
The proposed new Part 66 of the Federal Aviation Regulations (FAR) governing mechanics and repair technicians may run counter to FAA's own announced safety goals, NATA said. NATA President James Coyne said that while the association agrees with the FAA rationale for the rule, the result does not meet the objective.
