Eurocopter ramped up its restructuring, announcing plans in April to cut €200 million (US$264.9 million) in costs, partly by eliminating 400 positions in France and Germany. It maintains that its “Shape” program, launched last year, means investment as well as cost-cutting. The helicopter maker is investing another €1.3 billion (US$1.7 billion) in research and development to support new helicopter development and expand infrastructure, and believes those efforts could yield 400 new positions.
Everyone understands the need for radar. When aircraft are up in the air, it’s important to keep track of a carrier’s most important assets. Keeping track of assets down on the ground is just as important. Knowing how much inventory you have and where it’s located, after all, is a key component of supply chain management.
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.
Michelin North America is expanding its aviation tire operation Norwood, N.C., with an investment of $11.3 million. It plans to add aviation tire retreading services in the second quarter, a project that it says should create 72 jobs over the next 18 months.
LONDON—While lobbyists pressure aviation to clean up its act, the environment itself is undergoing changes that challenge every type of aircraft and engine. Regional and seasonal climatic differences, such as tropical heat and humidity, extreme winter cold, sand and dust over deserts, and salt air around coasts and islands create a conundrum of how to construct and maintain aircraft to cope with them that becomes chemical roulette. Testing Standards
As the process of complying with airworthiness directives (AD) becomes more complex, consultants and software entrepreneurs see AD compliance management as the next outsourcing opportunity.
GE Aviation started M601E turboprop engine training courses at its customer technical education center near Cincinnati. It held the first M601E line maintenance course in late March; the center also will serve as the North America training center for the H80 engine.
Smyrna Air Center became a GE Aviation authorized service center for the M601 and H80 turboprop engines. It will offer comprehensive line maintenance, removals and re-installations of engines and LRUs and engine spares for the two engine families. GE Aviation will provide Smyrna Air Center with full material support and training.
Turkish Technic started base maintenance activities in May for Moscow-based Sky Express. The aircraft, a Boeing 737-500, received a C6 base maintenance check at its facilities in Istanbul. The maintenance arm of Turkish Airlines is focused on building its in-house capabilities. It recently signed contracts to conduct C and D checks on 737 type aircraft with Italy’s NEOS and Oren Air, another Russian carrier. Engines
Component, Interior Cleaning Wipes Two new cleaning products from Nutek, one for exterior products such as landing gear and one for carpets and upholstery, aim to speed cleaning times and reduce waste and cost. Because they should cut water usage and chemical cleaning requirements, Nutek says the products also have environmentally beneficial effects for airline or MRO customers.
Federal Express to install a nose landing gear viewpoint with relocation of the viewport from aft of cargo bulkhead to forward of the cargo bulkhead on Boeing 727-200 series aircraft, STC ST03832AT
The European Commission published its 13th blacklist of airlines banned from operating within EU borders in April. The new list includes all carriers from the Philippines and Sudan, plus Iran Air. The EC acknowledged efforts by authorities to reform civil aviation in the Philippines and noted that PAL and Cebu Air have taken measures. Still, it insists it will—as a precaution—impose a full operating ban.
The government awarded Saab a 2-billion-kronor ($278-million) contract to upgrade the air force’s JAS 39C/D Gripen fleet. Work covers 75 single-seat jets and 25 twin-seat fighters, and runs for four years. No details were disclosed.
Certainly the volcano beneath Iceland’s Eyjafjallajokull glacier had a demonic effect on European air travel this past spring. Ironically, O&M spoke with Aircraft Window Repairs’ Robert Cupery shortly before the eruption hit stride. He said that the airborne effluent from the June 1991 eruption of Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines (the largest of the 20th century) has finally abated.
Why is it that despite revolutionary training, advanced technology and unprecedented knowledge of the causes of errors, we continue to make those errors? That, of course, is the million-dollar question, a question that Atul Gawande, a Harvard Medical School associate professor and thought leader in error reduction, seeks to answer in his book The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right. Gawande’s research spans multiple industries, including aviation.
Congress this month is expected to renew efforts to finish work on a long-awaited comprehensive aviation bill. House and Senate leaders hope to reconcile differences before the end of June in an attempt to reach a compromise agreement on sweeping FAA reauthorization legislation that covers an array of issues, including measures with long-term ramifications for repair stations.
