For maintenance, repair and overhaul tasks, low lighting levels are more than just an annoyance—they could lead to a host of safety concerns. Workers straining to see intricate aircraft parts could hurt themselves if the lighting is inadequate, or a worker could mistakenly miss foreign object debris left in an engine. Despite this fact, industrial-grade lighting can be difficult to replace and some facilities may wait until bulbs are nearly dead or burned out to replace them, leading to long intervals of very low light.

Apple Aviation Group has signed a line maintenance support contract with Strategic Airlines for three A320 aircraft based at Manchester Airport in the U.K. Apple Aviation's line maintenance capability at Manchester encompasses maintenance up to and including A checks on Boeing 737NG and classic aircraft, Boeing 747, 757 and 767 aircraft and the Airbus A320, A330 and A340 types. The MRO will be adding capabilities for the Airbus A300 and A380 as well as the Boeing 777 soon.

SuperJet International is expanding the stock list of Sukhoi Superjet spare parts at its warehouse in Sheremetyevo, Russia to its main warehouse in Frankfurt. In addition, it is working with Sukhoi Civil Aircraft Co. and operator Aeroflot to improve technical support for the Sukhoi Superjet and furnish the airline with more ground equipment and control devices. Joint Ventures/Acquisitions

AeroMechanical Services has signed a contract with a Canadian airline for seven automated flight information reporting systems (Afirs 220) and 12 next-generation model Afirs 228B for 19 aircraft. AeroMechanical Services will install the equipment on Boeing 737-200, 767-200F and ATR-42/-72 aircraft.

CFM International logged $51.7 billion in orders from 1,500 commercial, military and spare CFM56 engines and commitments in 2011. This activity encompasses 3,056 Leap engines.

Sanad Aero Solutions, the component and engine financing solutions group of Mubadala Aeospace, has partnered with Abu Dhabi National Leasing (ADNL), a wholly owned asset based lease finance arm of the National Bank of Abu Dhabi, to provide up to $169 million in lease financing to Etihad Airways for spare engine sale and leaseback transaction. ADNL will provide Sanad with a fully underwritten long term lease facility in support of the purchase and leaseback of five General Electric GE90 and six Rolls-Royce Trent 500 engines.

Dialight specializes in LED technology for industrial, commercial, transportation and hazardous setting applications. In August, it added a new 14,000 lumen LED high-bay fixture called the DuroSite. The fixture delivers 93 lumens per watt light that comes with a five-year full performance warranty. The light can produce 20% more light than Dialight's previous high bay LED light but consumes the same 150 watts. The DuroSite has been tested to endure more than one year of damp heat exposure.

Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics has appointed Christophe Tourné as global aerospace marketing manager for its process systems business unit.