The UK’s new coalition government has indicated it aims to cancel plans for a third runway at London Heathrow and refuses additional runways at Gatwick and Stansted as part of its commitment to implement measures “to fulfill ambitions for a low carbon and eco-friendly economy.” It also said it will replace the current air passenger duty with a per-plane duty.
Shifting, or some say unsettling, dynamics dictate new and different leadership skills among independent MRO and airline maintenance and engineering executives. That is the gist of a just-completed survey conducted by executive recuitment firm Spencer Stuart and Overhaul & Maintenance.
Alenia Aermacchi is carrying out initial flight tests of its new helmet-mounted display (HMD), which will be retrofitted to the company’s M-346 Master jet training aircraft. The HMD, which is designed to complement the head-up display and be an interface between a student pilot and aircraft systems, displays data on the helmet’s visor no matter which direction the pilot is looking. It duplicates HMDs in use on operational combat aircraft and is meant to give students a real-world introduction system use in day and night flying.
Brussels Airlines reduced its fuel burn on a Boeing 737-400 by 2.7% during cruise by installing an AeroTech Services’ wing modification. Because of this success, the carrier plans to have Aerostar in Romania install the wing modification on other 737-400s. Swiftair, MNG Airlines, Shenzhen Donghai Airlines, Ukraine International and GECAS are other mod kit customers.
Alan Epstein ➤ VP Technology and Environment, Pratt and Whitney
It’s a little unusual for a mathematical egghead type in a white shirt and tie to be talking about jet engine maintenance, the usual province of people who both really understand engines and are not afraid to get their hands dirty. (I did hands-on work on simple engines in my youth, but mainly learned that “carburetor” is French for “leave it alone.”) In the case of new geared turbofan engines, however, the advanced technology people at Pratt & Whitney have worked hard to reduce shop workload by adding hardware to the new PurePower engine family.
Smaller Videoscope For hard-to-access crevices on aircraft parts, Machida is offering a 3-mm flexible videoscope, the smallest in the industry, according to Machida VP Jitu Patel. The Machida VSC-3-140-N videoscope relays video images from a distal tip and focusable lens assembly back to a display via internal wiring. The image quality is similar to that of a high-end video camera. The VSC-3-140-N videoscope kit consists of a videoscope, SD card, processor and carrying case. Machida, Inc., 40 Ramland Rd. South, Orangeburg, NY 10962
Source One Aircraft Repair is under contract with Magnolia Investments to procure, provide bridging services and deliver aircraft to Magnolia customers. It has transitioned one Boeing 737-300 out of storage and expects to assist with additional aircraft.
The Finnish air force will work with Lockheed Martin to install an advanced airborne surveillance system on a modified EADS CASA C-95 medium-range turboprop airlifter. The four-year contract is worth $100 million. The system will have open and modular architecture to permit future upgrades.
The MRO industry shifted its focus the past year from merely surviving to investing in the future. As the aircraft maintenance business recovers apace with air transport and the world economy at large, O&M observes expansive breakthroughs in new technologies under development at universities and MROs around the world on subjects ranging from vibrothermography to composite repair, robotics and ways of refining maintenance processes.
WiFi retrofits are increasing on commercial aircraft as more passengers clamor for inflight connectivity. “The ability to use email and broadband are among the evolving expectations of airline passengers,” says Armin Jabs, COO of ICG. The company, whose NxtMail server initially was focused on business jets, expects to announce its first airline customer this year.
Turkish Airlines CEO Temel Kotil told Polish daily Rzeczpospolita that his company wants to buy LOT Polish Airlines, but the acquisition is being delayed due to LOT’s restructuring.
Many major airlines, especially in the U.S., still have old maintenance information systems, usually a core system with many modifications or "bolt-on" additions. That may change soon. One reason is that system vendors have improved their abilities to integrate with other systems and to develop their own applications.
AAR Corp. named Dany Kleiman VP MRO. Kleiman, who joined the company in September 2009 as VP operations, now leads its four heavy maintenance facilities in Miami, Indianapolis, Oklahoma City, and Hot Springs, Ark., plus landing gear repair, engineering services, PMA, back shop services, and aircraft sales and leasing. Don Wetekam, who joined AAR in 2007 as head of its MRO group, now is senior VP of government and defense business development, responsible for growing work in missions, maintenance and logistics.
Land Forces Aviation Command has signed a contract with Sikorsky Aerospace Services to upgrade its UH-60A Black Hawk helicopters to the advanced UH-60L configuration. Work will include the T701D engine modification (the current powerplant is the T700), installation of a high-speed shaft and new battery, advanced flight controls and avionics, new wiring harnesses, instrument panel modifications and a new aircraft flight-control computer. Sniper Pods
Lufthansa Technik’s preparations for the Airbus A380 include a newly built parts warehouse at Frankfurt Airport. The building has space for large items such as landing gears as well as an automated storage and retrieval unit for smaller parts. For the aircraft’s service entry with Lufthansa, Lufthansa Technik hoped to have some 65,000 part numbers available.
Boeing reports the on-time, on-budget completion of Phase 3 rotorcraft upgrades for CH-47D helicopters of the army’s airmobile force. The program’s three phases spanned 10 years and work on 75 projects by Boeing and 20 Spanish companies and institutions.
All maintenance execs struggle with the promise, burden and sometimes confusion of information technology. Early systems chiefly addressed compliance with regulations and reliability, thus preventing costly schedule disruptions. Major progress has been made on these fronts.
The Air Force is taking bigger steps in mainstreaming the use of composites in aircraft. Composite structures—typically carbon fiber and a thermoset resin such as epoxy—have been integral to the performance and stealth of such aircraft as the B-2 Spirit bomber, F-22 Predator and the upcoming F-35 Lightning II. Composites engineering also is moving into more mainstream aircraft.
The Chilean air force reports it will begin a program to modernize the cockpits of its three Lockheed Martin C-130 Hercules transports. The air force awarded a contract for the work to Esterline CMC Electronics Inc. of Montreal, a subsidiary of Esterline Technologies Corp. CMC developed the upgrade and will do the installation. No details about the work were disclosed.
As part of the normal maintenance process, aircraft safety systems such as oxygen masks and evacuation slides must be disabled to prevent accidental activation. At TIMCO Aviation Services, hundreds of preventative safety pins typically are inserted at the start of a maintenance process and then removed at the end of the job. If these pins aren’t removed at the end of the service operation, the safety equipment will not function when the aircraft is returned to service, and the flight crew will have no indication that the system is not operative.
