The holiday season is a time for celebration, family gatherings, shopping, travel—and myriad other distractions that can cause the focus of even the most dedicated technician to waver. It really doesn't matter what your industry or position, in the two-month period between Halloween in October and New Year's, most of us have a portion of our minds on other things—and technicians are no exception.
Sanad Aero Solutions has signed agreements valued higher than $50 million with Abu Dhabi Aircraft Technologies (ADAT) and SR Technics. All three companies are owned by Mubadala Aerospace and will work together to expand the parent company's MRO offerings. SR Technics and ADAT will manage additional spare inventories to expand services for customers such as Ethiad Airways, One Air and Maximus Air Cargo.
Vistagy's AeroSuite software tools are designed to address the challenges of repairing composite structures. FiberSIM, Vistagy's computer-aided engineering software, integrates with the CAD and PLM systems that airframe and component manufacturers use the most: CATIA V5 and V4, SiemensNX and PTC's Creo Parametric. The current version is FiberSIM 2010, which provides composite engineers an environment specialized for advanced composite materials.
ATR is establishing a global network of ATR-recognized MRO companies, and the first to join will be one from the Asia-Pacific region. The decision will be made by year-end, says ATR Eastern Support President Laurent Negre. There are eight companies in Asia-Pacific providing heavy maintenance checks on ATR airframes—Air New Zealand Engineering Services, Air Works (India), Air Tahiti, Bangkok Airways, Fokker Services Asia (Singapore), Malaysia Airlines Engineering & Maintenance, Vietnam Airlines and TransAsia Airways (Taiwan).
Laketronics is a small wire harness and control box supply and repair shop, manufacturing wire from 1.5 in. to 500 ft. long. It manufactures heavy cables to 32 gauge wires as well as coax, multi-conductor and ribbon cables. Laketronics also offers sealing capabilities, chip burning, welding and micro-soldering. It provides harnesses for Honeywell for avionics, engine and pressurization systems. The Laketronics engineering team designs aircraft wire harnesses and electrical layouts. www.laketronicsinc.com
Avtrade has made several new appointments: Tay Kay Lai will join its Singapore office as regional sales director, Asia. He comes to the position after 30 years of experience in an MRO environment. Daphne Teo will assume the role of Singapore office manager and Martin Assmann will join Avtrade as director of marketing.
BEIJING—Guangzhou Aircraft Maintenance & Engineering (Gameco) will try specialization as a way to drive up efficiency by allocating one of its sites to Airbus A320 maintenance.
The International Bureau of Aviation added Kane Ray as an aviation analyst to its consultancy team. Ray's primary focus will be to support IBA's consultancy and appraisal division with aircraft engine valuations and related research.
StandardAero signed a service agreement with Russian regional carrier, Ak Bars Aero, for aftermarket support of its General Electric CF34-3B1 engine fleet and Honeywell GTCP36-150RJ auxiliary power units. The engines and APUs power Ak Bars Aero's fleet of Bombardier CRJ200 aircraft. StandardAero will perform the engine work at its engine facility in Winnipeg and it will support the APUs at its Maryville, Tenn., location.
Abu Dhabi Aircraft Technologies (ADAT) opened its 46,200-sq. meter (151,575-sq. ft.) hangar, which provides capacity to double the company's heavy maintenance business. ADAT announced at the opening that it has struck a deal with U.A.E. national carrier Etihad Airways to expand the operator's maintenance agreement.
Mentor Graphics' new product Capital Publisher is a set of electronic tools for creating technical publications specified to the needs of each service technician repairing a wire harness on a unique aircraft.The product streamlines technical publications preparation by assembling design information like schematics, wire lists and location views into electronic document packages. Mentor Graphics says that this will reduce costs, improve accuracy and speed up troubleshooting for MROs dealing with AOGs. www.mentor.com
Satair USA has acquired aviation battery distributor Aero Quality Services for $30 million. Atlanta law firm Chamberlain Hrdlicka assisted in the sale, which involves the acquisition of assets in the United States as well as the shares of Aero Quality Sales' U.K.-based subsidiary.
Boeing Shanghai Aviation Services has received a maintenance certification for the Ukraine and will support charter airline Air Italy's fleet of Boeing aircraft. The certification, from the Aviation Administration of Ukraine, will allow Boeing Shanghai to do line and base maintenance work on Boeing 767-200/-300 aircraft for Ukraine-based customers. Boeing Shanghai will support Air Italy with maintenance services for its Boeing fleet for up to two years, starting with a C check on a Boeing 767-300ER scheduled for this month.
Co-Operative Industries has an AS9100 facility to manufacture and design wiring harnesses, cable, ignition leads and flexible conduits. Its repair station is certified by the FAA, EASA and CAAC and provides customers such as Delta TechOps with check and testing of accessories, repair and overhaul services. Co-Operative Industries repairs harnesses and cables for GE's GE90 and CF6-80C engines, the CFM International CFM56-5A/5B/5C/7B models and the Pratt & Whitney PW4000 QEC. www.coopind.com
FL Technics, an Avia Solutions Group company, will purchase U.K.-based line maintenance provider Storm Aviation. The acquisition will give FL Technics access to a network of 24 line stations. FACILITIES
PPG Industries has named Mark Cancilla global platform director for coatings. Brent Wright will succeed Cancilla as global platform director for transparencies. Cancilla started his PPG career in 1985 and has served in many roles, including engineering, sales accounting and product design.
TAM Airlines has completed commercial flight operations with Shell Aviation's AeroShell Ascender high performance capability turbine engine oil. Avionics/IFE
FL Technics plans to build an $18 million aviation support complex in the free economic zone in Ulyanovsk, Russia, that consists of two 5,000 sq. m hangars and one 6,400 sq. m hangar. It is scheduled to build one hangar every two years, with the first opening in 2014 and providing aircraft maintenance for short- and medium-range aircraft.
In the last couple of weeks, I have heard about a surprising number of new hangars that are, or will be, opening in the not too distant future around the world.
Nobody wants to do it, but most airlines will probably have to adopt new maintenance information systems eventually. Challenges abound. Fortunately so do choices, one of the most important of which is whether to go for a Big Bang or a phase-in approach. If the phased approach is selected, should it be by fleet or by function? Which functions should go first?
Baines Simmons has appointed John Heather to fill a new business development manager role that focuses on regulatory authorities. Heather comes to the position after serving as training operations manager at CAA International and spending four years as managing partner of Personnel Development Strategies.
Wire Masters provides wires and cables in standard and custom sizes. Its custom inflight entertainment cable, MasterFlight, comes in a version with a fluorinated ethylene propylene jacket and a ethylene tetrafluoroethylene jacket. Wire Masters also stocks a collection of connectors, termination sleeves, braid, tapes, cable ties and accessories. It also has laser marking and laser stripping capabilities with legible print in four sizes. www.wiremasters.net
As more health monitoring and diagnostic information is cultivated at the aftermarket level, software companies are finding ample opportunities to feed aftermarket data upstream to improve component design before parts even roll off an assembly line.
Paul Scherrer, the airline's managing director, engineering & planning, reports that the carrier rents hangar facilities in Zurich and Geneva, but it has no overhaul shops of its own. It performs light maintenance up to and including A checks, and other tasks such as engine and APU changes. It sources all heavy maintenance.
