Aircraft

December 2013 - January 2014 Issue 127
The leading international magazine for the manufacturing and MRO sectors of commercial aviation
Secrets of an MRO giant

Lufthansa Technik in profile
Fulfilling MRO demand
in the Middle East
Boeing 737 MAX

programme update
Aerospace fasteners:
meeting new demands
Tablets and the future

of electronic flight bags
CONTROLLING
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2013 Exxon Mobil Corporation.
Mobil and Mobil Jet Oil are trademarks or registered trademarks of Exxon Mobil Corporation or one of its subsidiaries.
CONTENTS
December 2013 - January 2014 Issue: 127
EDITOR
Jason Holland: Jason.Holland@mro-network.com
ASSISTANT EDITOR
Hannah Davies: Hannah.Davies@mro-network.com
NEWS UPDATE
ENGINEERING &
4.
MAINTENANCE
A round-up of the latest news,

contracts, products and people
movements.
EDITORIAL CONTRIBUTORS
Alex Derber, Bernard Fitzsimons, Chris Kjelgaard
PRODUCTION MANAGER
Phil Hine: Phil.Hine@mro-network.com
PUBLISHER & INTERNATIONAL MEDIA MANAGER
Alan Samuel: Alan.Samuel@mro-network.com
Aircraft Technology Engineering & Maintenance (ATE&M)

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Front cover: Gregor Schlger/Lufthansa

Technik AG
Content
INDUSTRY FOCUS
14.
Germanys global MRO giant

Lufthansa Technik Group is regarded as the
worlds largest independent MRO company. At
its Hamburg headquarters, Chris Kjelgaard
spoke to its CEO and other senior executives to
find out about the groups capabilities, affiliations and outlook.
50.
GP7200 programme update

Engine Alliances GP7200 engine has been in
service on the A380 since 2008. Alex Derber
assesses its early performance and analyses future maintenance strategies.
24.
MRO focus: Middle East

With fleet expansion worth $550bn in the next
20 years, the MRO industry in the Middle East
is set to experience strong growth. Jason Hol
land examines company strategies, general
trends and future challenges for the region.
TECHNOLOGY
56.
Aerospace fasteners meeting

new demands
Already wide, the range of fasteners for aerospace applications continues to grow as
manufacturers develop new drive systems
and respond to the demands of composite
structures. Bernard Fitzsimons reports.
& INNOVATION
30. 737 MAX programme update

The 737 MAX, an engine-variant family of
Boeings single-aisle 737 aircraft, is currently
in the detailed design phase. Hannah Davies
explores what the 737 MAX will bring to the
market when it enters into service in 2017.
INFORMATION
TECHNOLOGY
36. Tablets and the future of EFBs

The electronic flight bag (EFB) has become
an essential part of the cockpit. Hannah
Davies looks at the development of current
EFB solutions and what to expect from them
in the future.
44.
Aerospace oils and lubricants

In recent years more efficient and environmentally friendly aircraft have been entering
the market, each featuring high performance
engines. The oils and lubricants business has
had to adapt to the ever-changing landscape
of the aviation industry.
information systems
Aerospace manufacturing has embraced the
methodology and ethos of lean techniques.
Here, Kathie Poindexter, product marketing
manager at Epicor Software Corporation, looks
at how the effective use of ERP technology can
deliver lean manufacturing.
DATA & DIRECTIVES

62.
Michael A Oakes
Content Director
T: +44 (0) 207 975 1675
E: michael.oakes@mro-network.com
Jason Holland
ATE&M Editor
T: +44 (0) 207 975 1677
E: jason.holland@mro-network.com
Hannah Davies
ATE&M Assistant Editor
T: +44 (0) 207 975 1674
E: hannah.davies@mro-network.com
Alex Derber
Journalist
T: +44 (0) 207 975 1678
E: alex.derber@mro-network.com
Commercial
Jeremy Buckle
Event Director
T: +44 (0) 207 975 1668
E: jeremy.buckle@mro-network.com
Alan Samuel
Publisher & Int/l Media Manager
T: +44 (0) 207 975 1671
E: alan.samuel@mro-network.com
Victoria Keeble
Business Development Manager
T: +44 (0) 207 975 1666
E: victoria.keeble@mro-network.com
Robert Springthorpe
Business Development Manager
T: +44 (0) 207 975 1667
E: robert.springthorpe@mro-network.com
Operations
Lucinda Springett
Operations Director
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E: lucinda.springett@mro-network.com
Phil Hine
Production/IT Manager
T: +44 (0) 207 975 1664
E: phil.hine@mro-network.com
Steff Humm
Event Manager
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E: steff.humm@mro-network.com
Johanna Summers
Operations Manager
T: +44 (0) 207 975 1665
E: johanna.summers@mro-network.com
Marketing
Ellie Stamouli
Marketing Manager
T: +44 (0) 207 975 1660
E: ellie.stamouli@mro-network.com
www.mro-network.com
60. Lean manufacturing and business wide
FAA AD biweekly summary listings
Ivo Brook
Conference Producer
T: +44 (0) 207 975 1673
E: ivo.brook@mro-network.com
ATE&M is the official publication of the

MRO Network
Connecting the
global MRO
Community
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With everything from component support and maintenance

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your A380 is in good hands with Lufthansa Technik. As one of
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extensive global support and the expertise gained from being
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we have one thing in common when it comes to the A380:
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NEWS UPDATE
NEWS HIGHLIGHTS
INBRIEF
HEICO has announced that it has entered into a strategic partnership with
the Association of European Airlines
(AEA). The company says the agreement brings it closer to its European
customers and allows HEICO access
to AEAs expertise in policy analysis
and regular European regulatory updates.
Allegheny Technologies Incorporated
and Boeing have strengthened their
relationship with an extension of their
long-term titanium products supply
agreement; the extension covers titanium mill products.
HAECO ACQUISITION OF TIMCO ALL ABOUT

GROWTH
Hong Kong Aircraft Engineering Companys (HAECO) $388.8m acquisition of TIMCO will create
one of the worlds largest MRO providers based on revenues and customers numbers, as well as
the level of services and products offered.
HAECO, which is 75 per cent owned by holding company Swire Pacific, gains wider access to
the North American market, and the acquisition expands the companys narrowbody and regional aircraft service offerings. TIMCO will keep its name and management, and will seek
growth opportunities in the expanding Asia-Pacific market, particularly with regard to its interiors engineering and manufacturing business. Indeed, the interiors aspect of the deal would
seem to have been a key reason for HAECOs investment, with the company also stating its desire
to accelerate its development of technical capabilities.
Augustus Tang, HAECO CEO, said the company had long been looking to expand its global
presence, with the acquisition enabling it to unlock exciting growth opportunities for us globally. In its home market, HAECO has seen less demand for heavy maintenance recently, and its
first-half net profit in 2013 reflected this dropping 21 per cent from the year-before period.
The TIMCO deal therefore comes at a good time, and represents HAECOs first major acquisition
outside Asia-Pacific.
TIMCO is currently owned by investment vehicles managed by OwlCreek Asset Management,
but has seen three different owners over the past 15 years in this light then it is less surprising
that the company was ripe for acquisition. A business as usual mantra is being emphasised to
employees with no layoffs expected as a result of the acquisition; instead growth will come by
being part of an even larger, more global independent MRO company.
This transaction will open the door to new growth going forward. By making an investment in
TIMCO, HAECO is demonstrating its commitment to strengthening our platform in North
America, said TIMCO CEO Kevin Carter. This exciting and unique opportunity offers our customers access to a broader and deeper platform of products and services while better enabling
us to seize on current global growth opportunities related to interiors engineering and manufacturing.
The acquisition is expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2014, subject to regulatory
approvals, and will be financed through both cash and debt.
S Aircraft Technology - Issue 127 S
AJW Aviation has been awarded the

ISO18001 for Health & Safety Management Systems and ISO14001 certification for Environmental
Management Systems by the
International Standards Organisation (ISO).
Mitsubishi Aircraft has established a
quality assurance department in Munich, Bavaria, Germany. It will oversee the integration of European
partners with the MRJ programme
and aims to strengthen relationships
with them.
IMT Aviation has doubled its capacity
to include dedicated nacelle and
thrust reverser, electrical, CSD, and
pneumatic workshops at its composite and sheet metal structures facility
in Saffron Walden, Essex, UK; the additional capacity was achieved by the
company acquiring Aircraft Components Europe.
Mahindra Aerospace and Aernnova
have joined forces under a new technology partnership, which will see the
two companies working together to
develop capabilities in a bid to better
meet demand.
Recaro Aircraft Seating has opened its
manufacturing plant in Qingdao in
Shandong province, China. The new
facility will produce aircraft seats for
the local market.
Tianjin has become the first operator
in Asia to receive General Electrics
TRUEngine designation for 107 of its
CF34-10E engines that power its fleet
of 50 Embraer 190s.
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to support you.
www.mtu.de
NEWS UPDATE
NEWS HIGHLIGHTS
INBRIEF
ENGINE COMPANIES AND INDUSTRY PLAYERS

JOIN FORCES FOR RESEARCH
A new cross-company research programme designed to develop new technologies for commercial aero engines has been launched. The project, ENOVAL, which is taken from the name ENgine mOdule VALidators, is funded by the European Union and is being led by MTU Aero
Engines.
With a gross budget of more than 45m, co-funded by the European Commission with 26.5m,
the project intends to provide new technologies for fan, gearbox, low-pressure compressor and
turbine modules. The overall aim is to reduce engine CO2 emissions by up to five per cent and
to lessen noise by up to 1.3 decibels. This would achieve or surpass CO2 and noise level targets
set by ACARE and the European Commissions Vision for Aviation Flightpath 2050.
More than 140 representatives from the aerospace industry came together in Freising, near Munich, to launch the programme, which covers technologies for medium, large and very large turbofan aero engines. It will run for four years and has been set up within the EUs Seventh
Framework Programme for research.
Logistics group Norbert Dentressangle Overseas has opened an aviation

division called Norbert Dentressangle Overseas France Aviation to
work with the Aviation Logistics
Network.
Monarch Aircraft Engineering has been
awarded UK Civil Aviation Authority
Part 147 approval to provide aircraft
type training on the 787. The B1 and
B2 type training will be delivered by
the Monarch Aircraft Engineering
Training Academy at its training facility
at London Luton Airport.
The 35 European partners include Avio Aero, GKN Aerospace, Industria de Turbo Propulsores,
MTU, Rolls-Royce, Snecma, Techspace Aero and Turbomeca, along with SMEs from the aeronautics sector and academic and research organisations.
Jeppesen has completed rapid decompression tests of a new iPad Air.

The tests, which were completed to
an altitude of 51,000ft, showed the
device to be reliable in the unlikely
event of sudden cabin pressure
loss.
The programme will provide new technologies for the low pressure system of ultra-high by-pass
ratio propulsion systems (12<BPR<20). Taking a long-term approach, the ENOVAL programme
sees ducted geared and non-geared turbofan engines with ultra-high overall pressure ratio
(50<OPR<70) as being the preferred power systems for the next generation of short-, mediumand long-range commercial aircraft entering into service from 2025 onwards.
Chromalloy is set to expand its manufacturing capability at its Tampa,

Florida location by investing further in
casting foundry, to include a master
alloy operation.
These engines are a key technology within the new Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda
(SRIA) of the Advisory Council for Aviation Research and Innovation in Europe ACARE, said
ENOVAL co-ordinator Dr Edgar Merkl, from MTU.
Pratt and Whitney Aero Power has expanded Revima APUs authorisations
to include support of all new and existing APS 500, APS 1000, and APS
2000 customers within International
Air Transport Association I (North and
South America & Canada) and IATA III
(Asia Pacific).
AeroTurbine has completed its 100th
light/heavy C-check for Frontier Airlines fleet of A319 and A320 aircraft.
Wichita-based Spirit AeroSystems has
delivered its first leading and trailing
edge wing structures for the
A320neo programme. The components were built at its Prestwick,
Scotland facility.
MAEL OPENS NEW BIRMINGHAM HANGAR

Monarch Aircraft Engineering (MAEL) has opened its new maintenance hangar at Birmingham
Airport in the UK. The 110,000ft2 facility can accommodate most aircraft types and has capacity
for the 787, as well as other widebody aircraft, such as the 777, 747 and A350. It is large enough
to accommodate two 777-300ER aircraft or 10 narrowbody aircraft and will contain a number of
component-repair and back shops. The multi-million pound investment, which was completed
in less than a year, has created 150 new jobs.
Lufthansa Technik has become an affiliated member of the Latin American and Caribbean Air Transport
Association.
MTU Maintenance Zhuhai has celebrated the MTU Maintenance
groups 1,000th overhaul of a General Electric CFM56, delivering the
engine to customer China Southern
Airlines.
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NEWS UPDATE
NEWS HIGHLIGHTS
INBRIEF
The National Aviation Authority of
Germany (Luftfahrt-Bundesamt LBA) has approved Lufthansa Technical Trainings training centre in Erfurt as an European Aviation Safety
Agency Part-145 learning environment.
General Electric has awarded Silk Way
West Airlines its TRUEngine designation for eight GEnx-2Bs that will
power its fleet of two 747-8
freighters, scheduled for delivery in
2014.
Lufthansa says the first station for its
engine cleaning system, Cyclean Engine Wash, will be located in Dubai,
and will open at the start of 2014.
CAN ASH CLOUD DISRUPTION BE AVOIDED?

The infamous Icelandic ash cloud of April 2010 caused large swathes of European airspace to
close and massive disruption to air travel. Some felt the response to the incident was overly cautious or at least considered that most of the disruption could be prevented in the future.
So British airline Easyjet set about finding a solution, and along with Airbus and Nicarnica Aviation, recently conducted a unique experiment. The companies created an artificial ash cloud
in order to test a new technology that detects ash clouds and enables pilots to safely navigate
around them. The AVOID (Airborne Volcanic Object Identifier and Detector) system was made
by Nicarnica Aviation, and is similar to the weather radar system that is standard on commercial
aircraft, as it uses infrared technology to supply images to pilots and operations control centres.
The experiment utilised three aircraft. An A400M released a tonne of volcanic ash (collected
from the 2010 eruption) over the bay of Biscay, and a small aircraft flying through the ash cloud
measured the ash concentration, serving as a means to verify the AVOID results. Finally, an
A340-300 fitted with the AVOID sensor flew towards the ash cloud, successfully identifying it
from 60km away, while the sensor did indeed accurately measure the ash clouds concentration.
Although the cloud was visible to the naked eye to begin with, the companies noted that it dissipated quickly and thus became difficult to identify.
It is hoped that the AVOID system could soon be used to gather data to plan safe routes through
areas affected by volcanic ash clouds. We are at the beginning of an invention which could become a useful solution for commercial aviation to prevent large-scale disruption from volcanic
ash, said Charles Champion, Airbus EVP engineering.
"The threat from Icelandic volcanoes continues, said Ian Davies, Easyjet engineering director.
Finding a solution is as crucial now as ever to ensure we never again see the scenes of spring
2010 when all flying ceased across Europe for several days.
Further tests and certification are both needed, but Easyjet said it intends to mount stand-alone
AVOID units on some of its current fleet of aircraft by the end of 2014.
SNAPON TOOLING AT NEW MAEL FACILITY

British MRO Monarch Aircraft Engineering (MAEL) has signed a deal with Snap-on Industrial
that will see all of its engineers' personal tooling at its new maintenance facility at Birmingham
Airport replaced with Snap-ons Level 5 tool control system. MAEL said the move from personal
to company-owned tooling represented a major shift in its working practices. Its new 110,000sqft facility at Birmingham Airport opened on November 4 and preparation included an initial
delivery of more than 27,320 Snap-on hand and power tools.
Abu Dhabi Aircraft Technologies has

received UAE General Civil Aviation
Authority approval for its new GEnx
engine quick turn operation.
AAR has installed a Bauer rotary actuator component test system to help
expand its capabilities at both its New
York and Amsterdam facilities. The
new technology enables AAR to replicate demands, loads, cycles, and motions specified in testing
requirements for a variety of actuators in current and next-generation
engines and fleets.
STS Component Solutions (STSCS) and
AeroControlex have extended their
relationship with the appointment of
STSCS as the exclusive distributor for
FAA-PMA approved electricallyheated pitot probes and pitot-static
probes for commercial transport aircraft, manufactured by AeroControlex.
United Airlines has opened its new
widebody aircraft maintenance
hangar at Washington Dulles International Airport. The new 125,000 ft2
hangar, which includes 85,000ft2 of
enclosed aircraft space, cost United
nearly $45m to construct.
AAR has completed the first heavy
maintenance check on a commercial
aircraft at its MRO facility at Chennault International Airport in Lake
Charles, Louisiana. The work was carried out on an A330.
NEWS UPDATE
NEWS HIGHLIGHTS
Boeing, Mubadala in supplier

agreement
Boeing and Mubadala Development Company have signed a new strategic agreement
aimed at expanding the long-term role of
Mubadala as a Tier 1 supplier to Boeing.
Mubadala will now supply as much as
$2.5bn in advanced composites and machined metals to Boeing commercial programmes, including the 787 and 777X. The
companies will also work together to develop pre-preg and carbon fibre manufacturing capabilities in Abu Dhabi.
Chromalloy acquires Trac
AIRBUS INTRODUCES SHARKLETS RETROFIT

Airbus is set to offer its Sharklets wing-tip devices for the in-service A320 fleet. The aircraft
manufacturer has confirmed it sees a potential market for the Sharklet retrofit on some
4,000 in-service A320-family aircraft and has secured commitments for the retrofit from
airlines for around 200 A320s. One such airline is Jetblue. The retrofit uses the same 2.4mtall Sharklets that will be seen on the A320neo.
Chromalloy has acquired Trac, a tier one

component supplier, which provides design, engineering and manufacturing of
high- and low-pressure complex turbine
components. It produces components for
Rolls-Royce, Snecma, Alstom, Siemens, and
other manufacturers. Chromalloys acquisition of Trac Group is in line with our strategy to increase our support for the new
engine supply chain, said Carlo Luzzatto,
president, Chromalloy.
IAE LAUNCHES PUREV DESIGNATION

International Aero Engines (IAE) has launched a new designation for V2500 engines which
contain only IAE-approved parts and repairs. IAE said the Pure-V designation was intended
to help operators and lessors enhance residual values for their V2500 engines. IAE said engines maintained to the highest standards, such as those covered by a Fleet Hour Agreement
(FHA), consume less fuel, have fewer unscheduled removals and have up to 20 per cent
longer time-on-wing between shop visits. The manufacturer said it would provide a customised conversion kit for engines that do not currently meet the Pure-V standard.
LHT ACQUIRES 15 PER CENT HOLDING IN AEROTURBINE

Lufthansa Technik (LHT) is to acquire a 15 per cent interest in AeroTurbine. The two companies have agreed to enter into a partnership under which AeroTurbine will supply LHT
with aircraft and engine components, while the German MRO company will provide technical services on aircraft components for AeroTurbine, while supplying the Miami-based
company with surplus material for resale. The companies also have an option to extend
LHTs holding in AeroTurbine to 19.9 per cent.
EIRTECH, TES IN JOINT CAMO AGREEMENT

Eirtech and Total Engine Support (TES) Aviation have entered into a joint agreement to
provide continued airworthiness management and engine specific support services to their
customers in order to meet CAMO (Continuing Airworthiness Management Organisation)
and engine related requirements. The partnership combines Eirtechs experience of aircraft
and component CAMO coverage with TES skills in engine specific management.
SPACEBASED ADSB CONSTELLATION

CREATED
SES TechCom, DLR and Thales Alenia Space Germany have
signed a long term agreement for the joint development of the
first European space-based Automatic Dependent Surveillance
Broadcast (ADS-B) constellation to monitor and optimise air
traffic control around the globe. The agreement follows the successful launch of the ADS-B payload developed by DLR, which
is currently operated on board the Proba V satellite and continuously provides global ADSB data to the mission processing and analysis centre developed and operated by SES TechCom.
Rolls-Royce Trent 900 passes

test
An improved version of the Rolls-Royce
Trent 900 engine has passed its European
Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) type test.
The Trent 900 EP2 engine offers an additional fuel burn improvement of 0.8 per
cent and is set to become the new build
standard for the engine next year once full
certification is achieved.
GE, UCRI confirm collaboration

GE Aviation (GE) and the University of
Cincinnati Research Institute (UCRI)
have collaborated to form the GE Aviation
Research Center, which will be based at
GEs HQ in Evendale, Ohio. The new research centre will allow GE engineers and
scientists to collaborate with UCRI faculty members and UC students to develop new ideas for the benefit of future
GE products.
NEWS UPDATE
NEWS HIGHLIGHTS
INBRIEF
Spirit Aeronautics has implemented
Pentagon 2000SQL heavy maintenance software. The fully-integrated
system will support a range of business operations such as materials
management, MRO, heavy maintenance, accounting and financials.
FINAL ASSEMBLY OF MRJ TEST AIRCRAFT

UNDERWAY
RUAG Technology will be rebranded

as RUAG Aerostructures. RUAG
Aerostructures has facilities in
Emmen, Switzerland and Germany
and focuses on the manufacture of
complete fuselage sections and
winglets for passenger aircraft.
Final assembly of the first MRJ flight test aircraft is underway. Work on the aircraft, which
is under development by Mitsubishi Aircraft Corporation and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries
(MHI), has started at the Komaki South Plant of MHIs Nagoya Aerospace Systems Works
located in Aichi Prefecture. The transfer of the aircrafts mid fuselage, fabricated at the Tobishima plant also in Aichi Prefecture, marks the beginning of final assembly, which will
progressively advance as other sections of the fuselage, main wings and other structural
components arrive. After this, electrical wiring, hydraulic and other systems will be installed,
followed by other necessary equipment.
Cardiff Aviation and Serco have joined

forces to provide painting and surface
finishing services to commercial and
government organisations in the
aerospace, engineering and automotive sectors from their facilities at St
Athan, Aerospace Business Park,
South Wales.
LHT DEVELOPS CFC INSTALLATION PROCESS
Lufthansa CityLine has implemented

Swiss AviationSoftwares (Swiss-AS)
maintenance, repair and overhaul solution, AMOS.
Working together with the German Aerospace Center and the Technical University of Darmstadt, Lufthansa Technik (LHT) has developed methods of load transmission into carbon
fibre composites (CFC) aircraft fuselage structures for VIP customer aircraft. "The results
of the Fiber Force research project and the resultant force transmission concepts help us
decisively in the VIP completion business to continue successfully meeting the challenges
of installing cabin interiors in the new composite fiber aircraft designs," said Hans Schmitz,
SVP, VIP & executive jet solutions. The project, which is funded by the Federal Ministry of
Economics and Technology (BMWI), has now been able to define the maximal load on the
floor panels and to develop floorpanel hardpoints. A total of 40 of the newly developed
floorpanel hardpoints are currently being installed in a Boeing 747-8.
ROLLSROYCE, MUBADALA ACTDS JOIN FORCES

Rolls-Royce and Mubadala Aerospace, Communications Technology and Defense Services
(ACTDS) have joined forces to establish Abu Dhabi as an aerospace hub for the support of
Trent XWB engine maintenance, repair and overhaul and for component manufacturing.
As part of the agreement, Rolls-Royce is supporting Mubadala to become an approved Trent
XWB engine MRO provider within its global engine network and become the first such facility in the Middle East region.
WILLIS LEASE LAUNCHES AFTERMARKET SUBSIDIARY

Willis Lease Finance has launched a new subsidiary Willis Aeronautical Services (WASI)
which will provide end-of-life solutions for aviation materials and services related to
aircraft engines. In conjunction with the formation of WASI, Willis Lease acquired most of
the assets from JT-Power, a supplier of aftermarket materials and services. The new subsidiary will be based in the former JT-Power facility in Boynton Beach, Florida. The launch
of WASI positions Willis Lease at the forefront of providing end-of-life solutions for the
growing supply of surplus aircraft, while solidifying its premier position in the engine leasing business, said Charles Willis IV, chairman and CEO.
SKYONE, LMKAC FORM ALLIANCE

Skyone Maintenance Services and Lockheed Martins Kelly Aviation Center (LMKAC) have
formed a new alliance. LMKACs expertise will help us provide our customers with a single
centre of MRO services for airframes and engines. Through these technical and commercial
collaborations, we are implementing phase one of our plans to develop our 225,000ft2 MRO
facility that is near completion in Fujairah, UAE, said Salim Sayani, Skyone CEO.
10 S Aircraft Technology - Issue 127 S
Avtrade is set to expand its Singapore

office further by relocating to Changi
Business Park, which is located close
to Changi Airport, Aviation DistriZone and logistics facilities.
Lufthansa Technik (LHT) has developed a new product bundle designed for VIP and executive jet
operators in Asia, which offers pool
access, global material support, 24/7
trouble-shooting hotline support
and support in case of Aircraft on
Ground (AOG) situations. Business
Aviation Asia has become the launch
customer for the new global technical support package.
Boeing engineers have completed an
assessment of the 737 MAXs performance and have added an additional one per cent fuel-efficiency
improvement over the 13 per cent already promised. "We have been very
disciplined in our approach and continue to realise more benefit for our
customers as we retire risk on the
programme and get further into development," said Keith Leverkuhn,
VP and GM, 737MAX programme,
Boeing.
NEWS UPDATE
NEWS HIGHLIGHTS
ARSA launches AVMRO

The Aeronautical Repair Station Association
(ARSA) has launched its new online service,
AVMRO, (Aviation Maintenance, Repair,
and Overhaul). "AVMRO is the go-to place
for anyone looking for information about the
aviation maintenance industry," said ARSA
EVP, Christian Klein. The site provides information on contract aviation maintenance,
the global regulatory framework governing
the sectors operations, and the importance
of bilateral aviation safety agreements, as
well as global reports on the industrys economic and employment footprint.
Alcoa, VSMPO-AVISMA form JV
TALSCO TO RESUME OPERATIONS

Hong Kong Aircraft Engineering Company (HAECO) has confirmed that its subsidiary
Taikoo (Xiamen) Landing Gear Services (TALSCO) is to resume its operations in December,
2013, following a temporary closure due to a fire at the premises in November 2012. Since
the incident the company has revamped its facilities and operational processes, including
a new plating shop to be completed in Q1 2015. TALSCOs Federal Aviation Administration
approvals have been reinstated and further audits are expected to be carried out in the upcoming weeks.
QANTAS CALLS TIME ON AVALON

Qantas has decided to shut its Avalon maintenance facility in Victoria by March 2014. About
300 engineers at the site will lose their jobs as Qantas moves 747 heavy maintenance overseas. Qantas 747 fleet will fall from 15 to 10 aircraft over the next three years and the shrinking jumbo fleet has meant long periods of inactivity at Avalon, making the facility unviable
according to the company. The new redundancies mean that Qantas has slashed engineering headcount by more than 1,500 in the past 18 months.
GE INVESTS IN LOW EMISSION BIOFUEL

GE Aviation has signed a contract with DArcinoff Group (DG) for the purchase of cellulosic
synthetic biofuel, to be used for production and development testing of GE jet engines. The
ten-year agreement sees the engine manufacturer commit to purchasing 500,000 gallons
of the alternative fuel source per year. The low emissions jet fuel will be used at the companys main jet engine testing facility in Peebles, Ohio. Options are in place to order up to
10 million gallons annually of the synthetic biofuel.
ICING CONCERN OVER GENX

Operators of GEnx-powered 787s and 747-8s have been warned about the risk of ice crystals
forming in the engines at high altitude. Airlines including Lufthansa, United Airlines and
Japan Airlines have been told by Boeing not to fly within 50nm of high-altitude thunderstorms following six incidents this year in which GEnx engines lost some power. Japan Airlines has removed 787s from Tokyo-Delhi and Tokyo-Singapore routes as a result. Boeing
and General Electric are set to roll out a corrective software patch for the issue in early 2014.
VECTOR AEROSPACE INVESTS IN NEW FACILITY

Vector Aerospace has established a new engine facility for the PW150A turboprop at Singapore's Seletar Aerospace Park. The 8,000m2 engine centre represents Vector Aerospace's appointment as a Pratt and Whitney Designated Overhaul Facility (DOF) and will be equipped
with full engine overhaul and test capabilities. Vector Aerospace will be investing more than
S$50m in the construction, tooling and equipping of the facility.
Aluminium giant Alcoa and Russian manufacturer VSMPO-AVISMA have joined

forces in order to meet growing demand for
titanium and aluminium products. The
joint venture (JV) will see Alcoa and
VSMPO-AVISMA manufacture products
such as landing gear and forged wing components at Alcoas plant in Samara, Russia.
The JV is set to begin operations in 2016.
Spirit, Progresstech to sell JV

Spirit AeroSystems (Spirit) and the Progresstech Group of Companies of Moscow,
Russian Federation, have announced that
they intend to conclude their joint venture
(JV) that began in 2007 called Spirit-Progresstech. Spirit intends to sell its 50 per cent
share of the company to a member company
of Progresstech. Spirit's decision to sell its
share in the JV is part of a strategic review intended to help improve resources across the
company in order to better meet customer
needs.
Wencor acquires Star Aero

Wencor has acquired PMA parts provider
Star Aero. Star Aeros PMA parts are used in
the repair and maintenance of thrust reverser systems on commercial aircraft. The
addition of Stars thrust reverser PMA parts
increases Wencors ability to deliver cost
savings to our airline and MRO customers,
said Russ Adamson, president, Wencor.
Wencor says the acquisition will allow it to
build on its PMA parts portfolio and further
expand its capabilities.
Air Indias MRO ambitions

Air India is touting for third-party MRO
work as part of its push to quadruple maintenance revenues in the next four years. The
airline and Boeings joint venture MRO facility in Nagpur is due to begin operating in
mid-2014. Air India already has GoAir, Silk
Air and Mihin Lanka signed up for services.
S Aircraft Technology - Issue 127 S 11
NEWS UPDATE
CONTRACTS
SR Technics has won a five-year contract with
South African Airways. Under the contract, all
CFM56-5C engines on the airlines A340 fleet will
be covered until 2018. Work will be carried out at SR
Technics Zurich facilities.
Jetstar Asia has handed ST Aerospace a

three-year line maintenance contract covering its
existing and future fleet of A320 aircraft.
Boeing has selected GKN to manufacture the
Advanced Technology (AT) winglet for the 737
MAX. Production of the winglets will take place at
GKNs facility at Cowes, Isle of Wight, UK, with
final assembly completed at GKNs site in
Orangeburg, South Carolina.
Scandinavian airline SAS has signed a contract
to use Lufthansa Systems navigation charts
Lido/RouteManual and Lido/Enroute. In addition
to paper charts the airline will also be using the app
Lido/iRouteManual.
LOT Aircraft Maintenance Services has

chosen to adopt Swiss AviationSoftwares AMOS
for its maintenance operations, the solution aims to
provide a maintenance and engineering system
with advanced MRO functions.
Messier-Bugatti-Dowty has won contracts

with both Cathay Pacific Airways and Dragonair
for the provision of landing gear restoration and
support services for their A330 and A340 fleets.
Standex International has been awarded a

long-term contract from UTC Aerospace Systems
Aerostructures to produce single-piece lipskins
for the nacelles on the A320neo. The aluminium
lipskins will be produced by Standex and built by
UTCs aerostructures business. The contract
duration will run for the entire time of the A320neo
programme and has an estimated value of up to
$40m.
Qatar Airways has awarded Eirtech Aviation a

seven-year contract to paint its fleet. The
agreement involves the exterior repainting of 74 of
Qatars wide and narrowbody aircraft, including 49
777s and a number of A330s and A320s. The
painting will be completed using a base coat/clear
coat system from AkzoNobel.
Japanese airline StarFlyer has signed a Total

Technical Support contract running until 2022 with
Lufthansa Technik (LHT). In support of
StarFlyers current fleet of 11 A320s, LHT will
provide an expanded range of services for engines
and landing gears.
Spirit AeroSystems (Europe) and Lufthansa

Technik (LHT) have entered into a multi-year
aftermarket agreement covering the joint provision
of repair, overhaul and supply services for
CFM56-7B and GE90-94/-115 thrust reversers and
cowlings operated by LHTs customers in the
Europe, Middle East and Africa region.
GKN Aerospace has contracted Moyola

Precision Engineering to manufacture machined
metal components for the winglet GKN has
designed and is supplying for Bombardiers Global
7000/8000 ultra-long-range business jet.
Oman Air has signed an eight-year repair
agreement with Bombardier Aerospace covering
all repair work on the Rolls-Royce Trent 700 inlet
cowls for the airlines fleet of Airbus A330 aircraft.
Emirates has extended a contract with
OEMServices for its A380 fleet. It covers the
support of the new supplemental cooling system
provided by Liebherr as well as monogram
components.
South African Airways and Lufthansa

Technik have agreed a new Total Engine Support
contract. The contract will see the MRO provide
support services for the 23 CFM56-7B engines
powering SAAs 737-800 fleet.
Lufthansa Technik (LHT) and UTC Aerospace

Systems have signed a long-term contract to provide
rotable provisioning and MRO services on 787
nacelle components designed and manufactured by
UTC Aerospace Systems Aerostructures business.
The new contract allows LHT to offer customers
complete life cycle support for 787 nacelles on both
General Electric and Rolls-Royce engines.
Flydubai has renewed its heavy maintenance

agreement services contract with Joramco for a
second year. The MRO will continue to provide
C-checks for the airlines 737-800 aircraft that are
due for maintenance services throughout 2014.
PRODUCTS
Facom is offering a comprehensive multi-drive set with its 1/2 inch torque wrench. The company says the
S.208-200EA torque wrench is ideal for situations where a sturdy wrench is required to apply precise torque at
high levels. Weighing 1.22 Kg, the heavy-duty 1/2 inch model boasts a wide torque range of 40 200 Nm,
lending itself to a variety of applications and is accurate to + or four per cent with locking vernier micrometer
adjustment.
Crane Aerospace & Electronics SmartStem wireless tire pressure system for use on 737NG aircraft has
been certified. SmartStem allows customers to check tire pressure without gas loss, promising to improve
both efficiency and safety. SmartStem will provide tire inflation data to operators to help prevent
maintenance in a bid to avoid in-service issues related to low tire pressure and improve dispatch reliability.
PPG Industries aerospace business has qualified

PRC FIP Strip form-in-place sealant tape to SAE
Internationals Aerospace Material Specification
3379 for polysulfide rubber preformed strips used
to seal removable doors, skins and panels.
According to Bill Keller, PPG Aerospace global
segment manager for aerospace sealants, AMS
qualification is important in product selection for
airframe manufacturing. But a specification did not
exist when PRC FIP Strip sealant was introduced,
so PPG initiated development of AMS 3379. PRC
FIP Strip sealant is used by general aviation,
commercial and military aircraft manufacturers in
applications that include sealing wing fairings and
access doors.
NEWS UPDATE
Airbus and Thales have signed a long-term

service agreement in support of Airbus Flight Hour
Services and Tailored
Support Packages
programmes for A320, A330, A340, A380, and
A350XWB aircraft.
Thales has won a long-term component

services contract with Airberlin to support the
airlines A320 family fleet of 64 aircraft. Under the
seven-year avionics-by-the-hour contract, Thales
will provide spares provisioning and component
maintenance services for a selection of avionics
components.
Skymark Airlines has signed a Flight Hour
Services components contract with Airbus
covering support for 10 leased A330 aircraft from
2014. Under this long-term agreement, Airbus
Customer Services will provide spare parts
availability through a scope of more than 700 line
replaceable units.
Cardiff Aviation has adopted Commsofts
Open Aviation Strategic Engineering System
(OASES) to support its CAMO and MRO
operations and has signed a five year, 10 concurrent
users deal.
Maz Aviation has hired AFI KLM E&M to carry

out maintenance checks on four CFM56-5C jet
engines. The Riyadh, Saudi Arabia-based company
specialises in aviation advisory services for airlines
operating VIP aircraft fleets.
Revima APU has won a five-year auxiliary

power unit support contract from UK carrier BMI
Regional to provide repair and maintenance
services for APS500 APUs installed on Embraer
ERJ135/145 aircraft.
Boeing Shanghai Aviation Services has won

a contract with Aeroflot Russian Airlines to
provide a C-check for one of the airlines 767
aircraft, making it the fifteenth C-check carried
out by the MRO for Aeroflot. The work will be
carried out at Boeing Shanghais Pudong Airport
facility.
AJW Aviation has won a contract with Icelandic

airline, WOW air, to provide ongoing support for
one of the carriers A320 aircraft. Under the
five-year power-by-the-hour contract, AJW will
offer
component
coverage,
advice
and
recommendations on minimising home base stock
requirements, logistics services, and its 24/7 AOG
service to the airline.
SR Technics and Garuda Maintenance

Facility AeroAsia (GMF) have signed a five-year
service agreement for component repairs in
Jakarta, Indonesia. Under this agreement, GMF
will act as SR Technics regional support workshop
for approximately 150 part numbers, and will
develop its existing in-house repair capabilities
accordingly.
Alaska Airlines has ordered 111 firm Split

Scimitar winglet systems from Aviation Partners
Boeing for its Next-Generation 737 aircraft.
Western Aero has chosen Component
Controls MRO and logistics software to help
improve its online parts sales and operations event
management.
Aeroflot-Russian Airlines has awarded

Volga-Dnepr Technics with a maintenance
contract for the support of its 737NG fleet.
BAE Systems has won a three-year contract

with Japan Airlines to provide maintenance
support to the carriers commercial fleet. Under the
contract, BAE will offer repairs, spares, and
modifications to the airlines 737-800, 767, and 777
aircraft electronics.
Caribbean Airlines has awarded AJW

Aviation a second power-by-the-hour contract to
support its fleet of 15 737NG aircraft.
PEOPLE
[ Jonas Butautis has confirmed that he is to step
down as CEO of Lithuanian MRO operator FL Technics, with effect from December 31. Butautis, who
has fulfilled the position of CEO at the MRO for the
last four years, has not yet confirmed where he will
go next.
[ SR Technics has named Christof Spth as its new
head of line maintenance international and training
services. Spth, who joined the company as SVP
component maintenance in March 2013, will take
over the position from Andr Wall.
[ Safran has named Jean-Michel Hillion as VP, Boeing programmes; he replaces Norbert Gaillard who
has retired. Hillion joined the Safran Group in 1988
and most recently fulfilled the position of head of
Safran Electronics Sagem.
[ Boeing has named Ted Colbert as the companys
chief information officer (CIO). Colbert, who was
formerly VP of Boeings information technology infrastructure organisation, joined the company in
2009. He previously worked as SVP of enterprise architecture at Citigroup.
[ Aircelle (Safran) has appointed Didier Nicoud as

its new engineering vice president. Nicoud joined
Snecma in 1987 and has since worked at Turbomeca
(Safran) as deputy of the VP engineering with the
system engineering responsibility.
[ Dynamic Aviation has appointed Cris Benavides as

its new SVP, business development. Prior to joining
the company, Benavides most recently served as
SVP, business development for A-T Solutions; he has
also worked for BAE Systems.
[ TAT Technologies has named Tiko Gadot as its

new CFO, with immediate effect. Gadot, who replaces Yaron Shalem, has held several CFO positions
with Israeli industrial companies.
[ May Zhou has become VP and GM of SITA China.

Zhou spent six years at SITA as commercial director
with responsibility for managing the sales team for
SITA China. She was also COO at InfoSky, SITAs joint
venture with TravelSky in China.
[ Avtrade has appointed Lucy Newman to the new

position of asset manager, responsible for the purchase and management of all Avtrade inventory.
Newman joined Avtrades MRO department in 2008.
[ B/E Aerospace has named Werner Lieberherr as
its new co-CEO; effective from January 1, 2014.
Lieberherr, who is currently president and COO at
the company, joined B/E in 2006 as GM for the commercial aircraft segment.
[ WheelTag has named Scott Perkins as its new
chief engineer. Perkins, who has over 25 years experience in the aviation industry, has prior experience at Messier-Dowty.
[ Universal Avionics has appointed Paul DeHerrera

as its new CEO; he was previously COO at the company. DeHerrera joined the company in 1994 and
has over 40 years of aviation experience. Prior to
joining Universal Avionics he worked at AMR Combs
as VP, maintenance and avionics.
[ Dean Peterson is to join Spirit Aeronautics interior team as aircraft interiors lead technician. Peterson, who has over 15 years experience in the
industry, has previously worked as interiors supervisor for companies including Raytheon Aircraft
Services, Comlux Aviation Services, Savannah Air
Center and Elliott Aviation.
INDUSTRY FOCUS
Germanys
global MRO giant
Lufthansa Technik Group is regarded as the worlds largest OEM-independent MRO and technical
services provider. At its Hamburg headquarters, Chris Kjelgaard spoke to its CEO and other senior
executives to find out about the groups capabilities, affiliations and outlook.
ittle of a technical nature in commercial

aviation escapes the close scrutiny of
Lufthansa Technik Group. With some
26,000 employees worldwide more than
30,000 if you count all the employees of its
many joint ventures (JVs) Lufthansa Technik
is probably the worlds largest original equipment manufacturer (OEM) independent
provider of maintenance, repair and overhaul
(MRO) and aviation technical services. In the 58
years since its formation on April 1, 1955,
Lufthansa Technik has established a strong reputation for the quality of its work and for cutting-edge innovation.
Asked how the company achieved its eminent

position, August Wilhelm Henningsen,
Lufthansa Technik Groups CEO, says parent
company Lufthansa Groups decision in 1995 to
split its main businesses into individual companies with their own boards and shareholder
structures allowed Lufthansa Technik to focus
closely on its core business areas. Although
Lufthansa Technik still had to meet the MRO and
technical needs of the Lufthansa Group, its
largest customer, the company was able to apply
the institutional knowledge and capabilities it
had built over decades to win business from the
wider third-party market.
Due to the fact that we were relatively early

in segregating the different businesses in comparison to other peer airlines around the globe,
we had a good and quick start and we could grow
the business, says Henningsen.
Lufthansa Technik Group grew in two ways. The
first was organic: the company grew by winning
more contracts for maintenance on aircraft, engines
and components for its existing facilities. But
Lufthansa Technik also pursued a strategy of expansion by acquisition and partnership buying companies, or creating JVs or affiliations with other
companies, wherever it needed to add a capability
or create a market presence.
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INDUSTRY FOCUS
Overhaul of an A320-200 at Lufthansa Technik Budapest. Gregor Schlger / Lufthansa Technik AG
Today Lufthansa Technik Group consists of

six business units Maintenance, Overhaul,
Component Services, Engine Services, VIP Services and Landing Gear Services and these
units in aggregate include about 30 operating
subsidiaries and affiliates in Europe, Asia, and
the United States.
Today we have more employees outside Germany than inside, says Henningsen, noting that
about 60 per cent of Lufthansa Techniks 26,000
direct employees live and work outside Germany.
Along with its own facilities, Lufthansa Techniks
subsidiaries and JVs offer a vast variety of technical and technological capabilities. The group
now serves about 750 customers worldwide, of
which Lufthansa Group which represents
about 30 per cent of Lufthansa Technik Groups
overall business today in terms of revenues is
the largest.
The groups specialist subsidiaries and affiliates range from ASSB in Kuala Lumpur (a JV with
MTU which specialises in repairing jet-engine
compressor and turbine blades) to Tulsa, Oklahoma-based subsidiary BizJet International, a
large completion centre for Airbus A320 and
Boeing 737NG-family VIP aircraft.
Another company, Lufthansa Techniks IDAIR
JV with Panasonic Avionics in Hamburg, spe-
cialises in manufacturing and developing inflight entertainment and communications systems and cabin management systems.
Meanwhile, its JV with Air China, Ameco Beijing,
is Chinas biggest provider of technical support
services for aircraft. These four companies represent only a small portion of Lufthansa Techniks
huge portfolio of technical capabilities.
Lufthansa Techniks biggest

businesses
Engine and component MRO are Lufthansa
Techniks biggest businesses in terms of revenue, according to Henningsen. This is largely
because Lufthansa Technik has to buy the materials involved in engine overhaul and component repair from the OEMs, and these materials
are very expensive. In addition, specialised skills
are required and extremely high quality standards must be guaranteed for all work performed.
These high-value-added business areas will
remain core Lufthansa Technik competencies in
terms of their importance to the groups overall
revenues, says Henningsen. The fact that engine
MRO and component repair demand highly
trained skills and high-quality work means
Lufthansa Technik can keep much of the work at
INDUSTRY FOCUS
its high-labour cost facilities in Germany and

other developed-world nations.
However, airframe base maintenance another of Lufthansa Techniks major activities requires so many man-hours of labour that the
company has had to adopt a different strategy for
the market. Most of its airframe base maintenance
facilities are now located in countries where
labour costs are not as high as they are in Germany.
The airline industry is, I think, under continuous pressure in regard to cost, because the margins are low, and so the pressure is high on the
airlines, says Henningsen. So this is a question
for us, then: if there is cost pressure, how are we
going to deal with it? Thats why, for example, we
have taken everything that is labour-intensive
out of the core cities in Germany. We are on the
outskirts of Europe a little bit, in Ireland, in
Malta, in Budapest, in Sofia for base maintenance mainly for narrowbody airplanes.
And with the widebody airplanes we are
mainly in Asia, because this is all man-hour-related and the man-hours are not that expensive
over there compared to Central Europe. This
means that we have to identify where we can reduce cost, what we have to do about it and take
the initiative but then also take care that [the
business] is running in accordance with our values, quality level and goals.
But just because engine overhaul and component repair are high-cost areas, Henningsen says
this doesnt mean Lufthansa Technik doesnt care
about costs in performing these activities. This
is also under cost pressure, always, he says.
Thats why we do a lot in regard to lean [manufacturing], cost-cutting, in regard to improving
processes and productivity, material expenditures and overall efficiency. We have made
tremendous progress over the last five years.
other 10 lines and are capable of handling A380

heavy maintenance.
Motschenbacher says the number of heavy
checks (as well as transition checks and modification programmes such as interior refurbishments) handled by the European facilities varies
from year to year. However, Lufthansa Technik
expected the seven European base maintenance
facilities to handle at least 700 checks in 2013.
Lufthansa Technik also has a partnership with
Croatia Airlines Technik at Zagreb, to which it
subcontracts airframe base maintenance work
regularly.
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Aircraft base maintenance

Marcus Motschenbacher, Lufthansa Techniks
head of network sales & customer service for aircraft base maintenance, says the groups seven
European base-maintenance facilities
Lufthansa Technik Malta, Shannon Aerospace,
Lufthansa Technik Sofia, Lufthansa Technik Budapest, and its MRO bases at Berlin Schnefeld,
Frankfurt and Hamburg together provide
about 3.5 million man-hours annually of airframe
MRO work. Adding its Lufthansa Technik Philippines and AMECO heavy-maintenance JVs to
that almost doubles the annual man-hour total,
to nearly seven million.
Together, the seven European base-maintenance facilities offer 25 base-maintenance lines,
a line being space for one aircraft together with
the man-hour capability to service the aircraft.
Those 25 lines employ 3,500 people, most of
them maintenance technicians. AMECO and
Lufthansa Technik Philippines have at least an-
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INDUSTRY FOCUS
Lufthansa Techniks base in Hamburg Lufthansa Technik, HAM TS/M
We do a lot in regard to lean [manufacturing], cost-cutting, in

regard to improving processes and productivity, material
expenditures and overall efficiency. We have made
tremendous progress over the last five years.
August Wilhelm Henningsen, CEO, Lufthansa Technik Group
Lufthansa Techniks European base maintenance facilities service approximately 100 regular
customers, including Lufthansa and Lufthansa
Cargo, for whom Lufthansa Technik is the exclusive contracting party for their airframe overhaul
work. However, other Lufthansa Group carriers
use of Lufthansa Technik for base airframe work
differs. Some use the company exclusively, some
use it on a partial exclusive basis, and at least
one Swiss International Air Lines, which has
a long-standing agreement with SR Technics
uses its group sister company only on an occasional basis.
Nothing taken for granted

By no means is there any directive from
above for Lufthansa Group carriers to use
Lufthansa Technik, says Motschenbacher. From
the commercial, quality and reliability viewpoints, the MRO must convince Germanwings
just as much as SAS, or any other carrier. This
also applies to Lufthansa and Lufthansa Cargo,
especially in terms of cost. We are constantly
challenged by Lufthansa, every year and when-
ever the contract is up for renewal, says

Motschenbacher. Lufthansas agreement on
Techniks proposed rate for airframe base maintenance is reviewed regularly.
These reviews are especially important in
the current business environment. Lufthansa
Group is running a three-year, group-wide initiative called SCORE which stands for Synergies, Costs, Organisation, Revenue and
Execution until the end of 2015 to improve
the groups operating profitability by 1.5bn annually over its 800m 2012 group operating
profit. Lufthansa Groups corporate management has calculated that only by achieving an
annual operating profit of 2.3bn can the group
ensure continuity of commercial operations
during another global financial crisis like that
of 2008. SCORE will challenge us from year to
year, says Motschenbacher.
Lufthansa Technik has no formal relationship
with Star Alliance, the global alliance of which
Lufthansa is a founding member and a leading
light. (Star Alliances headquarters are located at
Frankfurt Airport and are literally next door to
Lufthansas Frankfurt hub control centre.) Some
Star Alliance member airlines use Lufthansa
Technik exclusively for their base maintenance,
but others are fierce competitors for airframe
MRO business, says Motschenbacher.
All of Lufthansa Techniks maintenance relationships with Star Alliance members are purely
on a bilateral basis. As a group, the Star Alliance
member carriers are mainly working on joint
INDUSTRY FOCUS
ventures on the operational side and so this is

their core focus right now, says Henningsen.
But of course [the fact of a partnership in] Star
Alliance helps, because you have friends on the
other side. It can be a door-opener for us.
European base airframe

facilities
Lufthansa Techniks smallest European base
airframe MRO operation is at Frankfurt. It is capable of handling base maintenance for the Boeing 757, 767, 777, MD-11 and all Airbus widebody
types including the A380, but most of the work
conducted here is line maintenance. Next smallest is Berlin Schnefeld, which handles A320family aircraft along with 737 Classic and NG
narrowbodies, and performs about 300,000 manhours of line and base maintenance a year.
Lufthansa Technik Budapest performs about
450,000 man-hours of base maintenance a year
on A320- and 737-family aircraft.
Hamburg also performs around 450,000
man-hours of base maintenance a year on Airbus
widebodies (including A380s) and also has Boeing 747-400 and 747-8I capability. Hamburg has
not performed much 747 heavy maintenance recently, but it does perform a lot of A330/340 and
747 interior modifications and that capability is
a particular strength of the facility, according to
Motschenbacher.
Together with Lufthansa Techniks facilities
in Malta, Manila and Beijing, its Hamburg base
is now performing installations of new business
class cabins and a new IFE system in Lufthansas
widebody fleet of 79 aircraft, in a programme due
for completion in 2015. Hamburg also handles
VIP-aircraft completion and refurbishment work.
Lufthansa Technik Malta and Lufthansa
Technik Sofia both perform about 650,000 to
700,000 man-hours of base airframe maintenance annually, according to Motschenbacher.
Malta handles A320- and 737-family aircraft, but
also performs heavy maintenance on A330s and
A340s. To date Sofia has only handled base main-
Measurements on mechanical components at Lufthansa Techniks facilities. Gregor Schlger /

Lufthansa Technik AG
tenance of A320- and 737-family jets, but it also

holds maintenance approvals for the Embraer EJets family and already performs E-Jet line maintenance. Lufthansa Techniks biggest European
base maintenance facility in terms of man-hours
is Shannon Aerospace. This facility handles
A320- and 737-family aircraft along with Boeing
757s and 767s and performs more than 800,000
man-hours of base airframe work annually.
According to Motschenbacher, the European
base maintenance facilities will be managed centrally from now on and will be developed into a
trans-national, competence-oriented base maintenance network. This will operate as a seamless,
virtual 20-bay-plus facility in Europe aiming at
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INDUSTRY FOCUS
Thrust reverser overhaul at Hamburg. Gregor Schlger / Lufthansa Technik AG
Due to the fact that we were relatively early in segregating

the different businesses in comparison to other peer airlines
around the globe, we had a good and quick start and we
could grow the business.
August Wilhelm Henningsen, CEO, Lufthansa Technik Group
providing the same quality, turnaround times,
processes and customer interface experience.
Motschenbacher says Lufthansa Technik has
not yet focused so much on regionals for base
maintenance: it doesnt service Lufthansa CityLine, and Lufthansa Group subsidiary Tyrolean
Airways is handled by Austrian Technik. However, Lufthansa Technik could become more involved with regionals given the fact that
Lufthansa Technik Group has a JV with Bombardier and Swiss ExecuJet Group called
Lufthansa Bombardier Aviation Services at
Berlin Schnefeld. This facility currently performs maintenance on Bombardier business jets
but it could also handle CRJs.
About 60 per cent of Lufthansa Techniks base
airframe maintenance work can be planned well
in advance, for inductions scheduled under longterm contracts, according to Motschenbacher.
The other 40 per cent has to be acquired and
10-20 per cent comes on short notice. Much of
the latter is from banks and lessors. Motschenbacher says Lufthansa Technik has to be very reactive with such customers. It offers them a host
of technical services, including work related to
aircraft repossessions and lease terminations, as

well as continuous airworthiness management
services to ensure aircraft remain airworthy and
their documentation intact and up-to-date
throughout and after leases.
Engine maintenance at
Hamburg
In all, Lufthansa Technik is now handling
nearly 1,000 major shop visits of engines a year
across its own shops and its N3 Engine Overhaul
Services JV with Rolls-Royce, according to
Thomas Bttger and Daniel Gross. Bttger is director of the CFM and IAE product line at Hamburg the CFM56 line is the facilitys busiest
and Gross is director of Hamburgs CF6-80 and
PW4000 product line.
The key value to Lufthansa Technik of its
Hamburg base the site covers an area of more
than 750,000 square metres (185 acres) is as
the companys major centre for technology innovation (through subsidiary Lufthansa Engineering and Operation Services), component repair
and engine overhaul. The base has a large new
engine test-cell hangar built specifically so that
it can completely enclose an aircraft undergoing
on-wing engine test runs. This has reduced noise
concerns for residential communities near Hamburg Airport, which is located in the semi-pastoral area of Fuhlsbttel north of the city.
The Hamburg facility handles approximately
320 engine shop visits a year at present, about 50
of which are from Lufthansa. A few years ago
Lufthansa was putting about three times as many
INDUSTRY FOCUS
Lufthansa Techniks JV with Air China, Ameco Beijing, is Chinas biggest provider of technical support services for aircraft. Gregor Schlger / Lufthansa Technik
engines through the shop annually, but the number has fallen away because Lufthansa has been
retiring its Boeing 737-300s and 737-500s. Some
other Lufthansa Group carriers also use
Lufthansa Technik for engine overhauls.
Hamburg is Lufthansa Techniks biggest engine-repair facility, employing about 2,000 people on engine MRO, engine parts repair, and
administration and invoicing for the engine
maintenance business. Hamburg has a pretty
high ratio of exclusive customers, with only
about 60 to 70 of its major shop visits each year
coming from non-exclusive customers, according
to Bttger. (Most of these visits are unscheduled.)
Some of Lufthansa Techniks engine-overhaul
customers at Hamburg are on long-term exclusive contracts and this allows most of its engine
workload to be pretty well scheduled.
Gross believes that Lufthansa Techniks market share in engine overhauls across all its facilities has increased over the past five years,
at a rate similar to that of the general growth in
the market. Apart from the recognised quality
and schedule reliability of Lufthansa Techniks
work, one reason for this is that the groups facilities handle a wide variety of engine types. Another reason is that Lufthansa Technik offers its
customers some unique services.
In addition to the small ASSB turbine- and
compressor-blade airfoil-repair facility in Kuala
Lumpur, Lufthansa Technik has a small facility
in Shenzhen in China for repair of thrust re-
versers and exhaust nozzles. Closer to home, its

Lufthansa Technik Turbine Shannon subsidiary
handles turbine repairs for CFM56-3 and CF680C2 engines.
However, in November 2013 the group announced it was considering closing its Lufthansa
Technik Airmotive Ireland facility near Dublin
due to a lack of work. This facility, originally
founded in 1980, has overhauled more than 3,000
CFM56, IAE V2500 and Pratt & Whitney JT9D
engines during its lifetime and it had been trying
to source more than half of its customers from
outside the Lufthansa Technik Group.
Lufthansa Technik has two other important
engine shops in Germany. Lufthansa Technik
AERO Alzey, located in Alzey south of Frankfurt,
performs MRO on the ubiquitous Pratt & Whitney
PW100/PW150 turboprop and GE Aviation CF34
turbofan families found on nearly all modern
Western-built regional airliners. Gross says AERO
Alzey is inducting increasing volumes of CF34-10s,
as the engines from many Embraer 190s and 195s
begin to reach their first scheduled shop visits.
The other important facility is the joint-venture N3 Engine Overhaul Services shop at Erfurt,
which Bttger says is on a strong growth path.
This facility only handles Rolls-Royce engines but
because almost all Trent-family engines are subject to Rolls-Royce TotalCare agreements, it is
being kept busy. N3 is now seeing 100-120 shop
visits annually, according to Bttger, with about
half of these coming from Lufthansa itself.
INDUSTRY FOCUS
Engine and component MRO are Lufthansa Techniks biggest businesses in terms of revenue, according to CEO Henningsen.
(Lufthansa operates A330-300s, A340-600s and

A380s powered by Rolls-Royce Trent models and
in future it will operate a large fleet of Trent
XWB-powered A350 XWBs.)
According to Gross, Lufthansa Technik has
about 30 long-term exclusive customers at its
Hamburg and Frankfurt facilities the facility at
Frankfurt Airport has a test cell and specialises in
check-and-repair and other on-wing/on-site, lowman-hour workscopes as well as approximately
60 non-exclusive customers. The customer total
is around 200 if on-wing services are included.
Competitive advantages in
engine maintenance
Bttger and Gross think that Lufthansa Technik has a big advantage over many competitors by
offering, through its Frankfurt, Montreal and
Shenzhen facilities, its Airline Support Team
product. This service sends teams to customers
own airport bases to see if engine problems can be
fixed on-site and on-wing rather than in the shop.
For instance, the teams can often change highpressure turbine blades and modules on-site without needing to strip the engine down in the shop.
Lufthansa Technik also offers comprehensive
support services to start-up carriers, working
with them to help them understand their lease
contracts thoroughly and properly understand
the workscopes associated with maintaining
their engines. It also helps them obtain their
AOCs and provides engine condition monitoring
support. The company understands the complexity and struggle of setting up capabilities
and will help new or growing carriers set up or

improve in-house maintenance facilities, according to Bttger.
The group has invested heavily to develop sophisticated techniques to conduct engine performance analysis in an extremely detailed way.
The process starts with exhaustive data collection
in the test cell and involves extensive computational flow dynamics modelling over a six to nine
month period. Lufthansa Technik began developing this capability when Lufthansa along
with several other carriers couldnt understand why some (but not all) CFM56-5Cs on its
A340-300s started exhibiting poor exhaust gas
temperature margin characteristics, which were
not associated with the number of hours and cycles they had accumulated and airfield conditions they had encountered.
The company developed an engine performance improvement programme (EPIP) for the
CFM56-5C and has subsequently adapted its
modelling programme and transferred it across
to the CFM56-7B and the CF6-80 families.
Lufthansa Technik is now going through a similar
exercise for the PW4000 family and has begun
work on an IAE V2500 engine performance
analysis and EPIP programme.
This is the way Lufthansa Technik views all
technological development in MRO, according to
Henningsen. Its a challenge, but actually we like
it were not afraid of it, he says. We look forward to it, because its challenging our organisation. We never have a standstill Its a
stimulation, and a differentiation.
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INDUSTRY FOCUS
he Dubai Airshow, held in November

2013, witnessed an extraordinary number
of aircraft orders from carriers in the Middle East. According to Boeings latest Current
Market Outlook (CMO), airlines in the Middle
East will require 2,610 new aircraft over the next
20 years, worth an estimated $550bn. Two thirds
of that demand is expected to be driven by the
rapid fleet expansion in the region.
Also significant are the types of aircraft being
ordered. Boeing sees the global network priorities and emerging alliances and partnerships of
Middle Eastern carriers reflected in orders for
long-range, twin-aisle aircraft such as its own
777 and 787 Dreamliner. The manufacturers
forecast says twin-aisle aircraft will account for
more than half of the regions new aircraft deliveries in the next twenty years compared to the
24 per cent global average.
Perhaps the most prominent trend of all is
the growing number of low-cost carriers (LCCs)
in the region. Boeing says it has seen a rise in
low-cost carriers that have benefitted from a
large youthful population, large migrant workforce and trends toward market liberalisation.
Single-aisle aircraft will make up 47 per cent of
regional deliveries up to 2032, while large aircraft
will account for 10 per cent of forecasted demand.
International traffic growth in the Middle
East continues to outpace the rest of the world,
says Randy Tinseth, VP of marketing at Boeing
Commercial Airplanes. The Gulf region benefits
from a unique geographic position that enables
MRO focus:
Middle East
With fleet expansion worth $550bn in the next 20 years, the MRO
industry in the Middle East is set to experience strong growth. Jason
Holland examines company strategies, general trends and future
challenges for the region including finding sufficient technicians
to fulfil the future demand for maintenance.
one-stop connectivity between Europe, Africa,
Asia and Australasia.
One major challenge for the Middle East to
address, though, is congested airspace. Tony
Tyler, director general and CEO of the International Air Transport Association (IATA), warns
that there is a huge amount of capacity in a relatively small area, with this being further limited
by military airspace. In fact only about half of
the airspace across the region is open to civil aviation. Already we are seeing delays becoming
commonplace, said Tyler. Governments across
the region have recognised the importance of
civil aviation in their national development
plans. It now needs to manifest itself in co-oper-
ation across the Gulf to manage air traffic efficiently for everybodys collective benefit.
MRO implications
The Middle Easts fleet growth has many implications for the maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) market. Not only will strategies need
to be put in place to meet the massive future demand for MRO work, capabilities will also have
to be built up for the aircraft that will be most
prominent.
Nevertheless, the Middle East continues to be
a beacon of strong MRO growth, according to
Richard Brown, principal at consultancy ICF
SH&E. He says that installed fleet growth in the
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Members of
INDUSTRY FOCUS
Jordan-based MRO company JorAMCo will continue to chase work from the plethora of low cost carriers in the region, or the national carriers that do outsource
work.
MROs will need to invest in new capacity, introduce new

capabilities, and become more efficient to accommodate the
needs of the new fleets.
Osama Fattaleh, CEO, JorAMCo
quality standards. However, one major weakness

that is increasingly affecting business opportunities and growth is the political unrest in the
Middle East. He points out that this doesnt directly apply to Jordan, but it does impact some
non-regional customers.
Training technicians
Middle East is one of the strongest in the world,
growing at approximately six per cent per year.
MRO generated by Middle Eastern operators is
growing even faster, at a rate of approximately 10
per cent per year between 2013 and 2022. When
overall MRO growth for all regions is growing at
just over four per cent clearly the outlook for
MRO in the Middle East is bright, he says.
Osama Fattaleh, CEO of Jordan-based MRO
company JorAMCo, also sees better years ahead
for maintenance companies. The increase in the
number of aircraft of mega carriers such as Emirates, Qatar Airways and Etihad; the rebuilding
of fleets of traditional national carriers such as
Iraq Airways, Kuwait Airways and Saudia, and
the expansion of low-cost carriers such as flydubai, Air Arabia and Jazeera will provide considerable opportunities for MROs in the region,
he explains.
Fattaleh believes that MROs in the region
benefit from the Middle Easts geographic location as well as competitive labour costs which
can be leveraged when accompanied with high
In its 2013 Pilot and Technician Outlook,

Boeing predicts that the region will require 53,100
maintenance technicians over the next 20 years
(in addition to 40,000 pilots). This means that
more than 2,600 new airline technicians will be
needed each year to meet the expected demand.
Were seeing a significant, urgent need for
competent aviation personnel in the Middle East
and across the globe due to the growth in airline
fleets, says Sherry Carbary, VP of Boeing Flight
Services. We are working hard with airlines, regulators, independent flight schools and other industry groups to make training accessible,
affordable and efficient so that anyone in the
Middle East who qualifies can become a pilot or
maintenance technician in this high-tech industry.
Boeing notes that the introduction of more
efficient and smarter aircraft will require fewer
mechanics over time, as ageing aircraft which
typically require more maintenance are retired
from service. New aircraft technologies featuring
more advanced components are also likely to
lead in some areas to lower maintenance require-
INDUSTRY FOCUS
Emirates Engineering will support the MRO needs of the fast-growing Emirates fleet.
ments and corresponding lower technician demand. Another impact is that MROs will also
need to invest in tooling and training and should
expect a longer return on their investment, according to JorAMCos Fattaleh.
The demand for technicians is still huge,
however, and it remains a big challenge for the
region to support MRO growth efficiently and
safely by supplying adequate labour. New training methods will need to be found in order to improve and quicken processes, but also to attract
young people to the profession in the first place.
At Boeing, we are continually looking at innovative training methods, moving away from paper
and chalkboard-based learning to incorporate
tablets, eBooks, gaming technology and threedimensional electronic modelling techniques,
explains Carbary. We need to make sure aviation
is as great a career option for the worlds youth as
it is for us.
Fattaleh thinks training schools will also be
challenged to update their training programmes
to include new technologies such as composite
materials and smart electronics and to increase
capacity to meet the demand. The CEO sees the
manpower issue as a serious impediment to
growth in the region, and if not addressed
properly can influence the competitive labour
costs. For its part, he says JorAMCo identified
this risk at an early stage and has established an
EASA Part 147 academy offering a four year sandwich course at its premises in Amman. In 2012,
this academy started providing a steady flow of

25 highly qualified mechanics every six months
to fuel the recent growth in business.
Brown states that Middle Eastern MROs have
been steadily growing capabilities to meet current and expected demand. He says MRO growth
is being generated by some very large airlines,
such as Emirates, Etihad and Qatar Airways, and
these companies are adding various capabilities
or signing partnerships with OEMs. Its always
been a challenge within the Middle East to find
and, most importantly, retain maintenance staff.
Attrition remains a concern for all in the region
and labour rates continue to climb, he states.
There have been efforts of varying success to
bring in nationals from each country to try and
reduce the reliance on expat labour (particularly
from the Asia-Pacific region), though the sheer
scale of demand for labour means that demand
for foreign workers remains high. Furthermore,
weve seen examples of engine and component
system OEMs signing license agreements with
local airlines and MROs in the Middle East.
He also notes that many of the key airlines in
the region are aiming to do as much work inhouse as they can sometimes for political
rather than economic reasons and the challenge is gaining access to valuable IP from
OEMs. Brown explains: Much of the existing
engine and component MRO infrastructure is located outside of the Middle East (in Europe or
Singapore, for example) so one of the recent
trends has been for OEMs to sign licensing agreements with major airlines or MROs in the region
that either provides in-region MRO capability or
access to rotable banks with commercial guarantees should the MRO work be performed outside
of the Middle East.
Working with the OEMs

Many of the biggest airlines in the Middle
East have embarked on what Brown calls a clear
strategy of working with OEMs. Relations are
often formalised during the signing of a new aircraft or engine, and the aim is to secure access to
MRO work and to be able to procure the latest
test equipment and relevant intellectual property, according to Brown. Weve seen deals between GE, Rolls-Royce, BAE Systems, Rockwell
Collins and others to further partnerships between airlines and their MROs, he says.
For their part, the OEMs are very keen to
work with the biggest operators in the region.
Given the scale of the orders heading into the
Middle East it hasnt escaped the attention of engine and component OEMs that if they wish to
secure valuable spares supply they have to work
with the airlines and their MROs in the region,
says Brown. As one airline put it, they expect
component OEMs to knock on their door and
show commitment to their airline. Its no surprise
given the order backlog that many are doing just
that, looking for long-term win-win partnerships
between airlines and OEMs.
INDUSTRY FOCUS
The regions mega-carriers are developing their own in-house maintenance capabilities as well as co-operating with OEMs.
Meanwhile, Fattaleh is clear in his opinion that

aircraft manufacturers are becoming more involved
in the aftermarket, joining their engine and component OEM counterparts. This is most evident in
new generation aircraft that utilise higher end proprietary technologies, he says. This will cause serious limitation in the opportunities available to
MROs and as such, MROs should establish partnerships with OEMs to have access to the know-how.
The regions mega-carriers are therefore developing their own maintenance strategies as
well as co-operating with OEMs, and this involves adding in-house capabilities where appropriate. So the aircraft orders from these airlines
will not be part of the future business plans of independent MROs. These companies are thus
largely left to compete for work from the plethora
of low cost carriers in the region, or the national
carriers that do outsource work.
These two categories of airlines will continue
to look for cost effective maintenance solutions,
thus enhancing the opportunities for independent MROs, says Fattaleh. In return, the MROs
will need to invest in new capacity, introduce
new capabilities, and become more efficient to
accommodate the needs of the new fleets.
Consolidation?
Broadly speaking, one likely result of OEMs
taking a larger share of the aftermarket is consolidation of MROs, as companies join forces to compete, or smaller ones are pushed out of the market.
Another vital factor affecting the MRO landscape
in the Middle East is that global MROs are seeking
to gain access to the fast-growing market.
So far, Brown says the Middle East has arguably seen less consolidation and fewer startups compared to other regions largely due to the
concentration of MRO originating from a handful of major airlines each of which is pursuing
their own MRO strategy.
But the picture may be changing, at least in
terms of strategic alliances. Fattaleh comments:
As it becomes costly to introduce new capabilities to maintain new generation aircraft, mirrored with longer return on investment
associated with these aircraft, added to the
OEMs thinking, MROs will find themselves
obliged to co-operate with each other to mitigate these challenges. This co-operation can
take the form of alliances, acquisitions or joint
ventures.
The expansion in the fleets of airlines in the
region, the competitive cost of labour, and the attractive tax regulations provide global MROs
with opportunities to create a footprint in the region which will avail opportunities for further
consolidation, he concludes.
As long as the challenges discussed in this article are addressed, the MRO industrys future in
the Middle East, broadly speaking, looks very
bright. In looking at the challenges facing aviation in the Middle East as a whole, IATAs Tyler
has urged governments to continue to co-operate
with the industry to develop solutions and strategies to the wider issues. The Gulf success story
is well-grounded in precisely [this] spirit of cooperation. By keeping its importance top-ofmind, I hope that it will long be a driving force
of success and an example for others.
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TECHNOLOGY & INNOVATION
737 MAX
programme update
T
he 737 MAX is Boeings latest innovation

a new engine-variant family of the 737
that offers operators lower fuel consumption and operating costs, among other benefits, with first delivery scheduled for 2017.
The aircraft programme, which features CFM
Internationals optimised LEAP-1B engine, will,
according to Boeing, boast an eight per cent operating cost advantage over Airbus A320neo and
offer a 14 per cent per-seat fuel consumption reduction compared to todays CFM56-powered
737 Next Generation aircraft (737NG).
With firm configuration of the 737 MAX 8
completed in July, the programme has entered the
detailed design phase and is on schedule for its
first flight in 2016, with deliveries set for 2017. The
737 MAX family which consists of the 737 MAX
7, 8 and 9 aims to build on the 737NGs popularity while providing the industry with an aircraft
that meets and exceeds all customer expectations.
However, Airbus A320 engine-variant, the
A320neo, is set to rival the MAX with improvements that arent too dissimilar than those being
worked on at Boeing. Airbus highlights the neos
The 737 MAX, an engine-variant family of Boeings popular

single-aisle 737 aircraft, is currently in the detailed design phase of
its programme. Hannah Davies explores what the 737 MAX will bring
to the market when it enters into service in 2017.
key improvements as being a 15 per cent reduction in fuel consumption, two tonnes of additional payload, up to 500 nautical miles of more
range, lower operating costs, along with reductions in engine noise and emissions. Therefore
it is fair to say that come 2016 when the
A320neo is expected to enter into service the
MAX will have a strong industry player to contend with.
Onwards and upwards

According to Boeing, if you compare the
MAXs fuel efficiency to the first 737NGs delivered the total improvement would be 20 per cent.
However, as with all new aircraft, customers are
expecting more than just fuel savings from the
MAX improved performance and increased efficiency are just for starters.
When compared to a fleet of 100 of todays

most fuel-efficient airplanes, this new model will
emit 310,455 fewer tons of CO2 and save more
than 215 million pounds of fuel per year, which
translates into more than $112m in cost savings,
says Boeing.
Originally, Boeings 737 MAX promised a 13
per cent fuel reduction when compared to todays
737-800NG models but since firm configuration
was achieved a further one per cent saving has
been announced after engineers conducted new
tests.
After reaching firm configuration we conducted some internal audits to look at the aerodynamics of the airplane, engine performance
and weight projections One of the most significant improvements we saw in the data was the
integration of the propulsion system to the wing
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One of the most significant improvements we saw in the data

was the integration of the propulsion system to the wing that
gave us about a half a per cent [fuel reduction].
Michael Teal, chief project engineer and vice president 737 MAX, Boeing
that gave us about a half a per cent. The other half

a per cent came from a combination of the aerodynamics on the winglet, as well as the propulsion system audit, explains Michael Teal, chief
project engineer and vice president 737 MAX,
Boeing.
Aside from providing customers with an exclusive fuel-saving engine-variant of the popular
737NG, Boeing has upgraded and improved several of the aircrafts features.
While Boeing is making the upgrades necessary to give customers the fuel savings they need
for the future, the 737 MAX will continue the superior design reliability of the Next-Generation
737, adds Teal.
In order to improve the 737NGs aerodynamics, Boeing has updated the design of the aft body
by extending the tail cone and thickening the
section above the elevator in order to improve
steadiness in airflow. As a result, the need for vortex generators on the tail is eliminated and this
brings with it the benefit of less drag, which results in better performance.
The MAX will also feature more efficient

winglets, with Boeing recently selecting GKN to
manufacture these Advanced Technology (AT)
winglets for the programme. Boeing used advanced computational fluid dynamics to combine rake tip technology with a dual feather
winglet concept into one advanced treatment for
the wings of the 737 MAX, explains Teal.
This concept is more efficient than any other
wingtip device in the single-aisle market because
the effective wing span increase is balanced strategically between the upper and lower parts, he
says. By reducing drag, the aerodynamic efficiency
improvement increases by more than 1.5 per cent
depending on range over other winglet designs.
In addition, Boeing has designed the winglet
in such a way that the natural transition from
laminar to turbulent boundary layer is delayed to
a point further back on the winglet, thereby reducing drag. Natural laminar flow has also been
included on the MAX inlet.
Numerous flight control and system updates
will also be implemented on the MAX. Fly-bywire spoilers have been added to flight controls,
paving the way for a weight reduction thanks to
the use of electrical signals versus the previous
mechanical system of the 737NG.
An electronic bleed air system will replace the
current pneumatically controlled system allowing for increased optimisation of the cabin pressurisation and ice protection systems resulting in
better fuel efficiency, according to Teal.
Large-format displays will be positioned in
the flight deck to provide airlines with an up-
gradeable platform for their systems. The new

displays will allow for future capability in the
flight deck as pilot training needs evolve.
Boeing also claims that the MAX will have
maximum passenger appeal thanks to the Boeing Sky Interior that will come as standard on
the aircraft. Drawing from years of research inspired by the travel experience, the 737 Boeing
Sky Interior features new, modern-sculpted sidewalls and appealing features drawing passenger
eyes to the airplanes windows, giving passengers
a greater connection to the flying experience, according to the OEM.
The interior also features larger, pivoting
overhead stowage bins that add to the openness
of the cabin. Speakers have also been integrated
into each rows passenger-service unit in a bid to
improve sound and clarity of public address operations, while the new air grill is tamper-proof
and enhances operational security.
gine technology with the adoption of CFM Internationals (CFM) LEAP-1B engine, which is intended to reduce the operational noise footprint
of the aircraft by up to 40 per cent. Emissions will
be approximately 50 per cent below the International Civil Aviation Organizations (ICAO)
Committee on Aviation Environmental Protection (CAEP)/6 limits for nitrogen oxides (NOx),
according to Boeing.
The LEAP-1B, which is the result of a lengthy
collaboration between CFM and Boeing, is the
sole engine choice for operators that wish to fly
the 737 MAX. CFM engines have been the only
Improved maintenance
systems
The 737 MAX will also feature enhanced
maintenance and connectivity capabilities such
as a more centralised BITE (Built in Test Equipment) system that technicians can access after a
flight. The MAX will have additional systems reporting BITE and maintenance data so technicians can better assess dispatch limitations and
maintenance actions, says Teal.
The MAX will build on the 737NGs connectivity provisions and enhance on-board networking systems to provide real time data during
flight to airlines ground operations. This will be
achieved through its new on-board network system (ONS), which will allow airlines to prepare
for maintenance actions ahead of the aircraft
landing, speeding response time on the ground
and enabling a faster turn at the gate.
The ONS, which is made up of a network file
server (NFS) and an enhanced digital flight data
acquisition unit (eDFDAU), is designed to help
improve maintenance procedures and simplify
decisions for operators. In order to prepare for
entry into service the ONS will first be installed
on the 737NG, but with limited functionality.
Boeing also has plans to install broadband offboard connectivity provisions to the 737NG in
production during 2015. The manufacturer says
it working on a plan for activation and certification of future connectivity features on the 737NG.
The MAX will then build off the functionality added to the Next Generation in the next few
years to further improve customer operations,
says Teal.
A big LEAP
The most significant advance offered by the
737 MAX is the new engine that powers it. The
programme will incorporate the latest quiet en-
power plant for all 737 aircraft sold since 1981, according to the engine manufacturer, which is a
50/50 joint venture between Snecma (Safran
group) and General Electric.
CFM has a proven history of delivering the
most reliable, high-performing engines in the
single-aisle market, states Boeing, with the decision to choose the LEAP engine over alternative options not being taken lightly. Teal
comments: We looked at many options before
the launch of the programme but CFM Internationals LEAP was the best choice for the 737
MAX.
The new engine combines advanced aerodynamic design techniques, lighter, more durable
materials, and more environmentally sound
technologies. As a result, operators of the 737
MAX should be able to achieve the 14 per cent
fuel burn reduction promised. An equivalent reduction in carbon emissions as well as decreases
in both NOx emissions and the overall noise
footprint will also be achieved.
It seems only right that a new aircraft comes

hand in hand with its own exclusive engine to
match its advanced technologies. The LEAP-1B
provides us with the right technology and an engine that is truly matched to the airplane, comments Teal. The new engine technology is the
major driver for fuel-efficiency improvement on
the 737 MAX, providing about 11 per cent of the
overall improvement.
The LEAP engine will be integrated with the
wing similar to the aerodynamic lines of the 787
Dreamliner engine. A new pylon, along with the
eight inch nose gear extension, will maintain
similar ground clearance to todays 737NG while
accommodating the larger engine fan. The nose
gear door design is altered to fit with this revision, according to the OEM.
Preparing for entry into

service
Given that aircraft programme schedules
often get delayed Boeings 747-8 being a prime
example the manufacturer, this time round,

has taken a measurable approach to its development schedule with the 737 MAX by anticipating risks and mitigating them with early analysis
and testing and time allotted in the schedule, explains Teal.
In fact, Boeing are doing so well with the programme schedule that they have already told customers that they will receive the 737 MAX
sooner than promised. In July the manufacturer
announced that it was accelerating the entry into
service of the 737 MAX from the fourth quarter
of 2017 to the third quarter.
With every programme there will be challenges, especially concerning getting the aircraft
out on time for its first delivery. Therefore, Boeing continues to reduce risks around the produce-ability of new technologies on the MAX
through some prototyping activities, says Teal.
The OEM has built several upper blades of
the advanced technology winglet, for example,
to allow for the build plan to mature. The product can then be produced at the high rates required.
The 737 MAX is already proving to be a market success with more than 1,600 orders confirmed with numerous operators such as: United
Airlines, Norwegian Air, American Airlines, Virgin Australia, Southwest Airlines, Aeromexico
and Lion Air.
Its all eyes on the MAX for now as Boeing has
no other plans to launch any other single-aisle
aircraft until well into the next decade. But the
OEM is definitely planning on making its mark
with the MAX, and aims to build on the 99.7 per
cent airline dispatch reliability of the 737NG.
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Tablets and the

future of EFBs
The electronic flight bag (EFB) has slowly but surely replaced the backbreaking paper documents that
pilots have traditionally used to navigate aircraft to become an essential part of the cockpit. Hannah
Davies looks at the development of current EFB solutions and what to expect from them in the future.
ilots have been dragging oversized flight

bags around with them for years.
Weighing around 25 kilos and filled
with up to 12,000 pages of documents, these
bags have allowed pilots to get from A to B.
However, in recent times the electronic flight
bag (EFB) has become increasingly popular as
an alternative and more innovative solution,
which not only lightens the load for pilots but
also helps the industry move towards a paperless environment.
An EFB can transfer data to and from an aircraft to give operators the information they need
to increase operational efficiency, such as engine
performance, engine trend monitoring, de-rate
take-offs and better flight routing, explains Ken

Crowhurst, director of sales at navAero. The resultant improvements that can be made inevitably reduce costs.
Crowhurst says the EFB initiative was born in
North America, but has since migrated around
the globe, quickly becoming a much sought after
investment for many airlines.
Large airlines can achieve savings of more
than $1m per year, or 300-400 thousand gallons
of fuel, by adopting EFB technology. Rick Ellerbrock, chief strategist at Boeing Digital Aviation
& Jeppesen, uses the example of FedEx, which
recently went paperless with Jeppesens EFB solutions, saving over 46,000 gallons of fuel per
year by removing 32 tons of paper from its aircraft.

Similarly, American Airlines has removed 16
million sheets of paper from its operations, saving about $1.2m per year in fuel burn alone.
United Airlines has also reported savings of over
300,000 gallons of fuel and 3,200 metric tons of
carbon emissions, according to Jeppesen.
One of the big economic and efficiency benefits that we are seeing with our mobile EFB solutions is the reduction of fuel burn related to
airplane weight reduction through paper elimination, says Ellerbrock.
There are three classes of EFBs available to
operators. Class 1 EFBs are basic portable devices
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With the proliferation of employee issued tablet devices in

both the cockpit and maintenance environments, demand for
aircraft independent tech log software on mobile devices is
rapidly increasing.
Larry Lenamon II, manager of operational experience, Ultramain
such as laptops and iPads that have to be stowed
at take-off and landing, whereas Class 2 devices
are docked and used during all phases
of flight. The most
advanced EFB is
the Class 3 type,
which is fully integrated into the
on-board avionics
system and is certified by the Federal
Aviation
Administration
(FAA) via a supplemental type
certificate (STC).
As a replacement for traditional
flight
documents, EFBs
have to be able to
support various applications and these can similarly be categorised into three software types.
Type A covers applications such as document
viewers (PDF, HTML, XML formats) and operating manuals. Type B consists of electronic charts
such as aeronautical charts, approach charts, or
an electronic checklist. Type C applications are non-EFB software applications found in avionics and include
intended functions for communications, navigation, and surveillance that
require FAA design, production, and
installation approval, according to advisory circular AC 120-76.
A never-ending need for greater
connectivity and integration in the industry has been another factor in the
rise of the EFB. As a result the last few
years have seen further advances in
EFB hardware and electronic logbook
(ELB) software.
Better than paper

ELB software has greatly developed
since the days of being the poor mans
electronic logbook, according to Larry Lenamon
II, manager of operational experience at Ultramain. Prior to recent advances in ELB software,
users had to look up the fault reporting manual

(FRM) code on a sheet of paper and then send
the code while in-flight over the Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System
(ACARS).
Now, software solutions such as Ultramains
efbTechLogs allow flight crews to determine the
current maintenance of their aircraft in real-time
using standardised fault codes and descriptions,
which allow ground staff more time to prepare
for inbound faults.
Ultramains maintenance interface provides
operators with discrepancy resolution, fluid uplift/service check entries, and aircraft maintenance release, all utilising electronic sign off for
complete paperless operations, says Lenamon.
In addition, real-time fault reporting allows for
improved maintenance operations, which results
in a reduction of No Fault Found (NFF) parts and
enhanced long-term data collection.
The efbTechLogs software is able to integrate
with the CMCF (Central Maintenance Computing Function) to provide crews with a one-touch
entry of aircraft detected faults. This allows for
information to be easily transferred from onboard the aircraft to the operators entire network, providing valuable data to the airlines
maintenance and engineering system.
Real-time reporting can also provide information on other defects such as those in the cabin,
which might affect passenger comfort as opposed
to airworthiness issues. This can mean fewer gate
delays and flight cancellations, faster ground
turns and increased aircraft utilisation, explains
Lenamon.
Jeppesens ELB solutions provide improved
situation awareness throughout the flight, according to Ellerbrock. Once airborne, situational
awareness on the electronic map can help the pilots anticipate potential issues or short-cut opportunities relative to airspace and convective
weather, again improving operational efficiency
and fuel burn.
Nowadays operators want ELB software that
is better than paper, says Lenamon, while still
meeting regulatory and operational needs. An
easy-to-use interface that simplifies their users
transition from the long-running paper logbook
world to the electronic one is also desirable.
As the EFB business advances, so do the demands of customers. With the proliferation of
employee issued tablet devices in both the cockpit and maintenance environments, demand for
aircraft independent tech log software on mobile
devices is rapidly increasing, says Lenamon.
Ultramain has expanded its efbTechLogs software to operate on mobile devices, which is now
in production use on the iPad with its launch
customer. As airlines install on-board hardware
such as aircraft interface devices and crew wireless networks, tech log applications on mobile
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tions and runway details for destination or alternate airports.

The past year has also seen display and processing technology advance for EFB hardware, allowing it to offer functions such as multi-touch,
which can be found on a Windows OS EFB when
using Windows 8. It is these kinds of advancements in technology that make upgradeable
EFBs more appealing to operators.
It costs far less to enhance existing system
parts with new internal components rather than
throwing them away and replacing them. Upgrade rather than replace is the mantra at
navAero, explains Crowhurst.
In addition to hardware upgrades, airway
manual content also needs to be updated from
time to time, which has traditionally been a large
task. However, with a tablet or iPad, EFB updates
can be automatic and Jeppesen has implemented
a plan whereby it only sends delta sets of information to pilots. This information only includes
data that has changed compared to the previous
revision, greatly decreasing the download time
and associated bandwidth concerns, explains
Ellerbrock.
Handy hardware
An EFB helps the industry move towards achieving a paperless cockpit.
platforms will be able to take advantage of airborne connectivity and aircraft data just as fully
installed Class 3 EFB systems do now, he explains.
Jeppesen also has a solution for mobile devices compatible with iOS and Windows platforms called FliteDeck Pro. In addition to
highly compressed vector-based Jeppesen terminal charts on iPad, FliteDeck Pro includes datadriven enroute content, which is dynamically
rendered and de-cluttered for the pilots current
needs, says Ellerbrock. Information for all enroute charted features is available with the tap of
a finger, including communication information,
operational notes, and current weather condi-
According to Crowhurst, navAeros solutions

the tBag Class 2 EFB and its iPad/Tablet Class
2 EFB allow operators to benefit from lower
costs, simplicity of design and installation complexity, few recurring costs and the ability to upgrade system components when technology
advances.
Meanwhile, Jeppesen says a host of airlines
globally have already received formal regulatory
authorisation for the iPad as an EFB with Jeppesens charts. The company takes pride in creating
products that work well in the users environment rather than becoming a distraction, explains Ellerbrock. We favour elegance and good
human factors engineering over slewing in a
bunch of features that cause distraction and
workload.
Most recently navAero introduced its
iPad/Tablet EFB product to the market, which
puts flexibility at its core. The company highlights that customers want either a mount to contain an iPad/tablet, a mount with aircraft power
connectivity or a mount with both aircraft power
and aircraft data connectivity. Again, low cost of
ownership and simplicity of installation are central to the design of the product.
Customer demands differ from airline to airline. With 42 contracted customers on four continents, we have seen 42 different requirements,
says Crowhurst. Although there may be commonality between airlines in regards to the types
of aircraft they operate, each airline runs their
business differently and has different business requirements and business goals.
However, the main customer requirement

tends to be for cost of ownership to meet with the
airline financial requirements for ROI (return on
investment), highly durable hardware and minimal maintenance costs, a complete solution with
little or no recurring costs, and a flexible and upgradeable solution.
Tablet EFBs are dominating the arena right
now, and the iPad is definitely the tablet of
choice, says Lenamon. While the iPad to some
is an innovative and easy solution, for others it
is a repurposed consumer device making its
suitability as an EFB questionable, especially
when compared to specially built EFBs. However, it can fulfil many of the requirements for a
Class 2 EFB solution, notes Crowhurst, and as a
low-cost solution it is highly attractive to airlines.
While the iPad can simplify processes there
are a few factors for airlines to consider when
adopting the device as an EFB solution. As with
most consumer devices, the iPad, experiences
regular upgrades and updates at the hands of its
manufacturer Apple and these may cause
problems. For example, Apple is discontinuing
the fourth generation iPad in favour of the iPad
Air, so any operators that have invested in this
model will have to bear in mind that any deployed hardware used to mount the device will
probably have to change, resulting in further expenditure.
Consumer products are built for the mass
market of millions of potential users. Manufacturers can change style, shape, I/O connectors,
etc. anytime they want (or need to) and the marketplace adapts, says Crowhurst.
Using the iPad as part of an avionics set-up in
a commercial aircraft requires significant investment in both time and cost. If a mount needs to
be changed or a connector needs to be modified,
its far more expensive for an airline to do so versus a consumer user, explains Crowhurst. Indeed, the iPad is an efficient EFB but operators
have to remember that it is primarily built for
consumers and not to meet the rugged environment of the cockpit.
The way in which Apple has designed the
iPad (without an Ethernet and a USB connector)
makes the connection of the device to aircraft
data systems challenging, says Crowhurst. As a
cloud-based system the iPad presents operators
with various challenges and specialist training is
required as Apple iOS needs a parallel ground infrastructure in order to work. In addition, the
majority of airlines work within a Windows IT
environment and will likely continue to do so for
many years to come, says navAero.
According to navAero, Apple iOS poses challenges for data connectivity as well as limiting the
means by which data can the transferred. Therefore, the OEM has manufactured its Class 2 EFB
using the Windows operating system.

Jeppesens FliteDeck Pro allows operators
to complete small and large-scale deployments
on the iPad platform, says Ellerbrock. The company is also developing a version for Windowsbased surface tablets.
Blurred lines
The distinction between a Class 1 EFB and
a Class 2 EFB has at times been blurred. The
AC120-76A advisory circular (AC), which was
issued in 2003 and contained guidance on the
operational use of EFBs, caused tremendous
confusion, according to navAero, until it was
replaced by AC120-76B.
Since the updated AC and subsequent
documentation from both the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), the confusion is
lessening as operators are seeing EFBs as either being installed or portable.
The trend of moving away from heavy
STC-dependent mounting solutions to
lightweight securing systems and tablet
battery charging strategies has been encouraged by the updated policy, says Ellerbrock.
NavAeros Universal Aircraft Interface Device (UAID) provides tablet devices with ARINC data connectivity.
We view the future of EFBs as being focused on

aircraft-connected system architectures.
Ken Crowhurst, director of sales, navAero
EFB classification is currently dependent on

the operational aspect of the equipment and its
impact on flight operations. With the introduction of the EASA central EFB rule, AMC20-25, the
EFB class definitions will be eliminated by
widening and blurring the hardware classification into two main sets portable and installed
EFBs, according to Crowhurst.
Now that a Class 1 device can be used during
all phases of flight when secured as viewable
stowage using a mechanism such as a suction cup
mount, pilots leg strap, or Velcro installation,
there really is little distinction between that and
the mounts used for a Class 2 device.
Jeppesen agrees that the line between the two
classes is more blurred than ever noting a
strong trend whereby Class 1 EFBs/tablets that
are walked into and out of the cockpit are doing
similar tasks to the Class 2 EFBs.
Class 3
The Class 3 EFB is the sectors most advanced
and integrated solution. Operators who want to
commit to the FAAs NextGen initiative will need
this type, as the programme requires the additional capabilities of a Class 3 EFB system to host
Type C software.
NextGen aircraft such as the A380 or 787 are
being delivered with Class 3 EFB systems as standard avionics equipment and when an EFB is
fully integrated into the aircraft systems operational efficiency is increased. An integrated EFB
can also take advantage of a variety of applications such as an airport moving map, real-time
graphical weather, and an electronic logbook.
We view the future of EFBs as being focused
on aircraft-connected system architectures, says
Crowhurst, supporting the idea that highly-integrated EFB solutions will be the future of the
business.
Jeppesen sees big operational benefits to
bringing airplane connectivity to EFB. This allows for information such as position, speed, and
heading to be shared and new capability around
aircraft health management, predictive diagnostics, real-time maintenance, and post-flight analytics that will help the operation run more
efficiently and predictably, says Ellerbrock.
Although noting that the the tablet will prevail as an EFB device in the current market,
navAero is convinced there will always be room
for aircraft-dedicated systems in the future.
Future outlook
Justification for an EFB programme has always been a major hurdle for operators, says
Lenamon. However, the low cost of a COTS (consumer of the shelf) tablet, such as the iPad, is all
too tempting and has encouraged many airlines
to implement them on-board their aircraft.
We believe there will be a global increase in
mobile EFB adoption rate for the next two-three
years at least, as tablet EFB solutions deliver an
unprecedented level of power, mobility, connectivity, flexibility, and hardware upgradeability
that is very attractive, says Ellerbrock.
Indeed, EFB technology helps an airline
streamline its operations and reduce costs, however the cost of docking hardware, communication channels, and infrastructure for such
applications are all factors to be considered.
For years there have been limited options for
operators, but now airlines have more choice. It
is simply a matter of time before competition
erodes the interest and market penetration of the
iPad as an aircraft EFB, adds Crowhurst.
NavAero highlights the fierce competition
coming from Samsung and other manufacturers,
who are basing their systems on Windows 7 and
8, as something to watch out for. A current trend
is the shift from the iOS platform to the more
commonly used Windows software, so navAero
sees the introduction of Windows 8 as vital in
boosting this interest.
Statistically speaking, Apple has historically
been the strongest brand for IT devices in the US
since the introduction of the first generation
iPhone, followed by the iPad. While Apple will
no doubt come up against some stiff competition, demand for the iPad will surge and spread
across the globe over the next 18 to 24 months,
predicts navAero.
The cost, simplicity and form factor of the
iPad has lent itself to becoming an excellent EFB
device, says Lenamon. However, a challenge that
it will face will be maintaining appropriate levels
of safety and standardisation within the vast and
constantly growing COTS computer market, explains Crowhurst.
NavAero is already seeing big changes in the
attitudes of regulators with regards to EFB technology. They will have to quickly and freshly
adapt to the new world that EFB technology is
bringing to the [industry and the] way airliners
are flying, which is one of the greatest and widereaching changes since the evolution of fly-bywire, adds Crowhurst. There will be a shift in the
regulators position to allow capabilities that are
today relegated to the standard avionic to be migrated to the EFB, he predicts. NextGen and
SESAR (Single European Sky ATM Research programme) will be the first targets as well as milestone to open up this new world of thrilling new
complex and advanced EFBs.
Jeppesen sees being able to facilitate the
adoption and regulatory support for capabilities
that fundamentally improve operational effi-
Jeppesens Mobile FliteDeck Pro EFB Enroute Flight Chart Solution.
ciency, such as those defined in NextGen and

SESAR, as a challenge for the future. However,
Ellerbrock sees the EFB as a key component to
the success of such programmes.
Jeppesens vision for the future involves being
able to use EFBs for productivity and pre-flight
preparations outside the aircraft. It also sees
being able to form a connection from the EFB to
the outside world through on-board Wi-Fi and
other data-links for real-time information updates and communications as a possible next
step. Certainly, our future includes solutions
that take integrated data-driven technology and
information layering to a new level, says Ellerbrock. A future with extremely innovative applications that enable far greater connectivity,
integration, and data analytics.
Aerospace oils
and lubricants
T
he more innovative aircraft get, the more

forward-thinking the engines which
power them have to become. Increased
performance and thrust, and a simultaneous reduction in fuel consumption, noise and CO2
emissions, are required factors.
Indeed, the advances made in engine design
have had an effect on oil choice, as demonstrated
in Air BP Lubricants recent Turbine-Engined
Fleets of the Worlds Airlines Guide: The number of engines in commercial service has increased by 22 per cent in the past 15 years, the
number using High Thermal Stability (HTS) or
High Performance Capability (HPC) oils has skyrocketed by more than 150 per cent.
Todays modern jet engines require a lubricant that can handle extreme speed, temperature, and other stress without breaking down or
forming deposits, according to ExxonMobil.
Therefore oils and lubricants manufacturers have
had to continuously improve their products in
order to better serve the industry.
The first commercially available synthetic aircraft engine lubricants were introduced in the
early 1960s and were listed under the MIL-PRF-
In recent years more efficient and environmentally friendly aircraft

have been entering the market, each featuring high performance
engines. The oils and lubricants business has had to adapt to the
ever-changing landscape of the aviation industry. Hannah Davies
investigates.
23699 specification. It was a change to this particular specification that eventually led to the two
classes of oils being established, Standard Grade
(STD) and HTS, according to Air BP.
The more recent AS5780 specification
based on both the MIL-PRF-23699 specification
and OEM requirements has since become the
new industry standard, particularly for lubricants
used in commercial engines. Similarly, this specification has two classes of turbine engine oil,
Standard Performance Capable (SPC) and HPC.
The first oil to be approved and classified as
HPC under this specification was Air BP Lubricants Turbo Oil 2197, says a spokesperson for Air
BP.
While HPC and SPC oils are chemically and
physically similar in respect of viscosity, acid
value (TAN), flash point and pour point limits,

according to Air BP, the main distinction between the two classes is performance.
HPC oils have an improved oxidative and
thermal stability which translates into numerous
benefits, such as reliable oil life, improved resistance to degradation, a reduction in the formation
of coke deposits, reduced component wear and
improved engine reliability. These allow an engine to comfortably reach shop visits, which reduces the need for additional maintenance or
disruptive oil condition monitoring programmes.
Modern lubricants protect modern engines
as directionally they are operating at higher gas
temperatures than before, thereby improving efficiency, comments Van Noordennen, sales
manager, lubricants at Shell Europe.
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Find out more at spiritaero.com/aftermarket.
Y O U R V I S I O N TA K E S F L I G H T.
AeroShell Turbine Oil 560 (ASTO 560) is designed to reduce coking and improve wear resistance for modern jet engines.
At peak efficiency engines may run up to 2,100C in their core. In

the current climate, these engine temperatures are higher than
ever before, and STD oils that once reflected the pinnacle of
performance are now being superseded by HPC oils.
Air BP spokesperson
An engines cycle efficiency is improved with
increasing compression ratios and increasing
combustion temperatures, says Van Noordennen. As oil isnt just used as a lubricant, but also
as the primary heat transfer mechanism for the
internal parts of a turbine engine, any increase in
engine temperature translates into an increase in
oil temperature.
The higher performing an engine, the more
the engine core temperature increases. Therefore, gas turbine lubricant technology has had to
advance to ensure maximum efficiency at higher
temperatures.
At peak efficiency engines may run up to
2,100C in their core. In the current climate, these
engine temperatures are higher than ever before,
and STD oils that once reflected the pinnacle of
performance are now being superseded by HPC
oils, explains Air BP.
According to Air BP, an average Rolls-Royce
RB211 had a turbine inlet gas temperature of
around 1,100C at take-off thrust 40 years ago.
By contrast, new engine types such as the
Rolls-Royce Trent 900 and the Engine Alliance
GP7200 operate with a turbine inlet temperature of more than 1,450C at take-off, with
some only being certified to work with HPC

oils.
Advanced materials like ceramic matrix composites (CMC) are allowing engineers to continue
to raise the temperature and pressure at the heart
of the engine, says Air BP. These engines are then
able to work more efficiently, which ultimately
reduces maintenance time and costs for airlines.
Air BP uses the example of General Electrics
(GE) GEnx engine, which offers customers 15 per
cent less fuel consumption and similar reductions in CO2 emissions.
The conditions in modern engines are hotter
and harder than ever on lubricating oils, agrees
Van Noordennen. In particular, the tendency of
oils to break down and produce hard particles of
carbon increases with temperature.
According to Robert Midgley, technology development manager, fuels and lubricants at Shell,
the company works with aircraft and engine
manufacturers to ensure that it supplies customers with exactly what they need.
Slippery business
Turbine engine oils (TEOs) both SPC and
HPC are used in main propulsion engines,
auxiliary power units and the electrical generators on the main engines along with their drive
gearboxes, according to Air BP.
It is these TEOs that prevent friction being
caused between engine parts while in flight, minimising the risk of wear and tear as well as cooling
equipment and sealing performance.
In fact, oils are so important to the smooth
running of an airline that choosing the incorrect
oil could result in increased maintenance costs
and Aircraft on Ground (AOG) situations. Using
oil that caters to the engines working conditions
can result in a longer engine lifespan, more time
in the air, less maintenance time and reduced
maintenance costs.
Todays newer engines such as CFM Internationals LEAP series and GEs GEnx operate at
higher temperatures and as engine lubricants become exposed to this, coking can occur because
the temperature and the oil residue time are
higher than the oils stability limitations.
Coking is used to describe oil-related carbon
deposits that can restrict oil flow, leading to a decrease in reliability, as well as an increase in maintenance costs. Coking can be responsible for
engine failures, shortened maintenance cycles
and unscheduled repair work, according to Air BP.
The modern day engine, although more cost
and environmentally efficient, inflicts much
harsher conditions onto lubricating oils. While
higher engine temperatures have many benefits
there is an inclination for oils to break down and
produce hard particles of carbon as temperatures increase, says Midgley.
The problem is that oils with low-coking

properties have seal compatibility issues, which
presented lubricant manufacturers with an entirely different challenge to produce a HPC oil
that could deliver the optimum balance between
low coking and elastomer integrity.
Shell Aviation says its new TEO AeroShell Ascender meets this challenge and improves the
oils low-coking properties while preventing the
engine elastomer seals from deteriorating faster.
AeroShell Ascender offers both low coking tendency and elastomer compatibility, explains the
manufacturer.
Testing, testing
As with all new technology and developments, testing procedures at times differ. Testing limits within the specification AS5780 are
more stringent for HPC oils on a number of properties... These include oxidation and corrosion
test methods as well as those aimed at higher
temperature Pyrolysis chemistry such as the Hot
Liquid Process Simulator which is intended to
look at carbon, or coke forming tendencies, says
Midgley.
Air BP comments: HPC oils are approved
against the AS5780 specification after completing
a multitude of laboratory tests designed to examine physico-chemical properties, thermo-oxidative performance and engine materials
compatibility. These standard industry tests
provide a fairly deep insight into expected onwing performance, according to the company.
However, on-wing conditions can very rarely
be properly represented in laboratory conditions.
While it has, and will always be, a challenge to
replicate true on-wing conditions in a laboratory
environment, Air BP Lubricants has developed a
coking test rig the Coker Mister test as a
means to assess the performance of engine lubricants.
The Coker Mister is carried out in a dynamic
environment with temperatures, pressures and
flows that closely mirror those encountered during multi-leg flight conditions, says Air BP.
The test rig is able to replicate the pressure,
temperature and oil flow regimes encountered in
the hottest part of an engine bearing compartment, according to the manufacturer. This allows
Air BP to gain a better understanding of how
their products work in on-wing conditions. As a
result, oil performance, oil health and coking
propensity can be analysed.
The Coker Mister played a crucial role in the
development of Air BPs Turbo oil, BPTO 2197,
as a means of evaluating coking propensity to ensure the integrity of a product.
BPTO 2197 is a latest generation HTS synthetic lubricant offered by Air BP and is relied
on by many of the worlds airlines to consistently
provide unsurpassed high temperature cleanli-
Shell has been supplying aviation fuel for over a hundred years.
ness, outstanding oxidative and thermal stability

and superior hydrolytic stability, according to
the manufacturer.
While ExxonMobil tests its Mobil Jet Oil 387
product in laboratory and in high-stress landbased turbine applications under conditions that
are even more demanding than normal aircraft
service.
The company is currently working with operators and OEMs to test the product described
by ExxonMobil as the next generation advanced
aircraft-type gas turbine lubricant on wing
through it Flight Service Evaluation Programme,
according to the company.
Whats on offer?
The oils and lubricants business is continuously striving to create more innovative and efficient products. The aviation technology and
research world is a busy place in Shell, comments Midgley.
While the cost of fleet engine oils represents
a comparatively small proportion of an airlines
operating costs, and for a twin-engine, single
aisle, standard body commercial aircraft can account for less than 0.01 per cent, according to Air
BP, engine maintenance costs make up a substantial portion of an operators expenses. Therefore,
choosing reliable oils is hugely important to remaining cost effective.
Turbine engines are now at the stage where
some of the more modern developments simply
wont work with the legacy oils the industry has

been using for decades and so HPC oils such as
AeroShell Ascender are being mandated for use,
says Van Noordennen.
Shells AeroShell Turbine Oil 560 (ASTO
560) has been in the market for over 25 years according to Midgley. This third-generation, 5mm2/s, sterically hindered ester lubricating oil
is designed to provide commercially viable performance and benefits such as reduced coking
and improved wear resistance for modern jet engines, he explains.
Indeed ASTO 560 was designed to resolve
the issues of coking propensity without affecting
elastomer seal compatibility and to improve load
carrying capacity, says Midgley. Today, it is a
recognised and approved product by almost
all the major engine and accessory equipment
manufacturers that helps improve operational
efficiency.
Shells latest AeroShell Ascender is designed
to cope comfortably with the longer intervals between scheduled maintenance typical of the new
generation of jet engines, says Van Noordennen.
Thanks to its excellent elastomer seal compatibility, the chance of seal swell or degradation is
reduced. If these factors are allowed to increase
it can lead to high oil consumption and as a result
additional costs can be incurred.
Its low coking propensity reduces the
chance of oil coke build-up in bearing chambers and oil service pipes, which can help to
AeroShell Ascender is designed to cope comfortably with longer intervals between scheduled maintenance.
Turbine engines are now at the stage where some of the more
modern developments simply wont work with the legacy oils the
industry has been using for decades and so HPC oils such as
AeroShell Ascender are being mandated for use.
Martijn Van Noordennen, sales manager, Lubricants Europe, Shell
lower maintenance and cleaning costs, he
adds.
Trends and challenges

Many airline operators have historically persisted with a single oil policy across their fleet,
says Van Noordennen. However, with the introduction of more innovative engines to the market, which require HPC oils, some operators are
accepting a two oils policy, he explains. This
means they will only use HPC where it is needed,
but others are starting to consider the use of HPC
oils on their legacy engines.
When HPC oils first entered the market
there were some elastomer problems reported
with a particular competitor HPC oil on the market, especially with legacy engines, says Van Noordennen.
However, thanks to a more widespread understanding of HPC oils and their benefits operators
are starting to see that cutting edge oils can actually have a benefit in engines that strictly dont
need them, adds Van Noordennen. According to
Shell, engines are cleaner, oil life is longer and
on-wing inspections show up fewer issues such

as vent pipe coking.
Another concern for operators is changing
from one TEO to another, but products such as
AeroShell Ascender, which has the necessary
compatibility with other approved oils, can eliminate any issues or concerns associated with
changing oils.
Insufficient lubrication of an aircraft and engine parts could lead to equipment failure,
agrees Midgley. Even once the engine is shut
down turbine engine lubricant is still needed.
When an engine is running, oil flows internally and carries excess heat away from bearings
and internal gearboxes. When an engine shuts
down there is a lot of residual heat, but with no
oil flow the internal temperature of the engine increases considerably after shut down, he explains.
Future landscape
As oils and lubricants manufacturers develop
their products and spread the word about HPC oil
and its benefits, more and more airlines, engineers
and OEMs are adopting the solution for their fleets.
Yet the approvals process for turbine engine

oils remains long and very expensive, according
to Van Noordennen. [So] reducing the time to
market and accelerating the approval path is the
key to getting the benefits of new turbine engine
oils to end users.
Due to TEO choices being limited in the past
only now are end users starting to consider the
benefits [that] new technology can bring, he says.
This is a journey and we need to share with airline operators that lubricants are as much part of
the cutting edge of aviation technology as geared
fans, low NOx combustors and open rotors.
Shell notes that in Pratt and Whitneys new
geared turbofan engines, a reduction in fan speed
would decrease drag from the blades, thereby
increasing efficiency as well as giving a number
of other claimed benefits, explains Midgley. But
all advances have their challenges. Even if it improves the overall engine efficiency, no component can be 100 per cent efficient, so the gearbox
will generate heat heat that the lubricant will
have to remove in addition to lubricating the
mechanism.
In order to reduce maintenance costs and ensure operational efficiency going forward, operators need to opt for the best TEOs possible.
Although investment in oils and lubricants only
equates to a tiny fraction of an airlines overheads, the possible effect that poor lubrication
can have on an engine, and indeed an aircraft,
can be highly significant and extremely costly.
MRO-network
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ENGINEERING & MAINTENANCE
GP7200
programme
update
Engine Alliances GP7200 engine has been in service on the A380
since 2008. Alex Derber assesses its early performance and analyses
future maintenance strategies.
y the close of 2013, the A380s GP7200 engine will have clocked up two million
flight hours, yet it is still a relatively young
engine that awaits its first heavy maintenance
cycle. As such, any present assessment of its performance and technical peccadilloes is somewhat
premature, though a large enough cohort of engines is now in service to allow some cautious
analysis.
The engine, manufactured by Engine Alliance
(EA), entered service on an Emirates A380 in
2008 and there are are now 49 GP7200-powered
A380s in service with Emirates, Korean Air and
Air France. Dispatch reliability among those
three of whom Emirates has been using the
engine the longest and Korean the shortest
has been 99.9 per cent. Other customers include
Etihad, Qatar Airways and Transaero Airlines, all
of whom were still to receive their first A380s at
the time of writing (December 2013).
While Rolls-Royce Trent 900s power another
60 in-service A380s, EA claims to be the market
leader due to its 55 per cent share of engines ordered. At present, that share is largely down to
Emirates, which has ordered 90 GP7200-powered A380s, though the Dubai-based carrier is to
open up competition between Rolls and EA for
the engines for the additional 50 A380s it ordered
in late 2013.
Development
Following the lead of other successful engine
partnerships such as CFM International and IAE
International Aero Engines, which made the
competing CFM56 and V2500 engines for the

A320 family, General Electric (GE)and Pratt &
Whitney opted to parent a new joint venture
Engine Alliance to develop the GP7000 line for
the A380.
To do so, the two companies drew on the lessons learned from the 51 million flight hours accumulated by the GE90, which powers the 777,
and the PW4000, which has been used on the
A300/A310, A330, 747, 767 and 777 and married the best technologies from both.
Design and production of the engine has
been evenly split between the two EA partners.
GE manufactures the high pressure compressor
(HPC), combustor and high-pressure turbine
(HPT), while Pratt & Whitney manufactures the
fan module, low-pressure compressor (LPC) and
low-pressure turbine (LPT). Final engine assembly is conducted at Pratt & Whitneys Engine
Center in Middletown, Connecticut. Other
GP7000 programme participants include
Frances Snecma, Techspace Aero of Belgium and
German manufacturer MTU Aero Engines.
Together, the EA partners developed a
76,500lbs-thrust engine, albeit one capable of
reaching 81,500lbs. The GP7200 was even tested
up to 94,000lbs, not only to assess its upper limits
but also to help any future development of higher
thrust variants for potentially larger models of
the A380.
EAs biggest customer, Emirates, has led calls
for an upgraded version of the GP7200, with its
CEO Tim Clark suggesting that new technologies
developed for the 787s GEnx should be incorpo-
AFI doesnt consider that the GP7200s early years have been any more difficult than those of other new engines.
Generally, people start with overhaul and then do some

repair activities, but for the GP7200 it was the other way
round: we started by developing repairs as we had to feed
into and answer requests from the network.
Jos Marie Louis, SVP engines, AFI
rated in the A380 powerplant. Options include a

redesign of compressor and turbine blades with
new 3D design tools and software upgrades to
improve fan clearance.
Assessing those and other options has been
the task of a technical team at Engine Alliance,
which was due to deliver its report to management by the end of 2013. The teams findings will
then be reviewed with current and future GP7200
operators to examine the respective business
cases, but no further timetable has been drawn
up for an upgrade programme. The review of
possible improvement options wont occur until
next year, so it is too early to predict if or when
an upgraded GP7200 engine would be available,
explains a spokesperson for EA.
As things stand, EA claims that the latest
GP7200s are beating the engines originally specified fuel burn targets by 1.3 per cent. That is the
result of three separate performance enhancements and it saves operators $11m over 15 years of
operations for one A380, according to EA. Even
so, the first GP7200s still beat specific fuel consumption targets by 0.9 per cent, and the engine
is 17 decibels quieter than ICAO Chapter 4 requirements.
Ongoing upgrades
Improvements to fuel burn have been made
possible by an ongoing campaign to remove
weight from the engine. For instance, GKN
Aerospace Engine Systems redesigned the turbine exhaust case to improve the load path between exhaust case mount lugs and the struts,
reducing the weight of the engine by more than
50lbs. Also, when engineers realised that certain
bleed fairings could be removed without affecting LPC stall line capability, another 16lbs came
off. The diet continued with the introduction of
lighter struts and a new LPT shaft, resulting in
an engine that is now 200lbs (91kg) lighter than
its original incarnation, saving 800lbs of weight
per A380.
There have been durability and other performance enhancements, too, such as those announced by EA in 2012 when the GP7200 had hit
one million flight hours. Aside from the weight
reductions above, these included upgrades to
surface finishes in the HPC, better HPT sealing,
and optimised engine clearances.
Technical hiccups
While the GP7200 has experienced nothing
as dramatic as the uncontained engine failure
that ripped apart a Trent 900 on an airborne
Qantas A380 in 2010, the engine has had its problems, including an in-flight shutdown in 2012
over Australia on an Emirates Sydney-Dubai serv-
AFI aims to achieve full capabilities on the GP7200 by the end of 2014.
ice. As a result the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued a February 2013 airworthiness
directive (AD) for an on-wing inspection of HPT
stage 2 nozzles in GP7200 engines manufactured
before 2010, when EA redesigned the stage 2 nozzle to improve cooling. Based on the nozzle condition, operators may need to replace it with the
latest stage 2 nozzle configuration designed in
2010 or repeat the inspection at specified intervals, an EA spokesperson says.
Air France has been operating the GP7200 since
November 2009 so will be less affected by the
above issue than Emirates, which owns some of the
earliest GP7200 engines. We are in a good position
to have a reduced impact of what has been experienced by Emirates, confirms Jos Marie Louis,
SVP engines at Air France Industries KLM Engineering & Maintenance (AFI KLM E&M). Contrary to the GE90-115, we are not the fleet leader
[on the GP7200] so we see in advance what is happening and we get some benefit from EA taking
some actions and doing some monitoring, some
borescoping and some quick turns in order to prevent the same thing happening on other engines.
A bigger concern for Air France is a June 2013

AD from the FAA ordering borescope inspections
of the HPC stage 6 disk for cracking in the baffle
arm, which could lead to secondary damage to
the HPC 7-9 spools. To prevent this, EA has redesigned the stage 6 disk baffle arm and developed a fleet retrofit plan, which will see affected
engines upgraded during routine shop visits.
We know that at the shop visit we will have
to go more frequently than expected to the compressor, and we have taken some provisions to
adapt our capability to this compressor
workscope, which will happen earlier than expected, says Louis.
Despite those issues, Louis doesnt consider
that the GP7200s early years have been any
more difficult than those of other new engines.
For instance, just over four years after the service
entry of the GE90-115B Air France experienced
two in-flight shutdowns of the engine due to
distinct problems. The GP7200, Louis says, has
caused AFI fewer headaches, though he does
admit that, if I was an independent MRO and
if I had signed a time and materials contract
with my customers I would be very happy because this engine would provide some work!
Maintenance
About 80 per cent of the GP7200 order-book
is covered by EA fleet management aftermarket
agreements. Maintenance of the engine is on condition, with first restoration shop visits recommended after 3,000 to 3,500 cycles. The main
centre for engine overhauls is the GE Wales facility
in Cardiff, though EA is also working with operators to establish a network of quick turn maintenance lines at Air France, Emirates and Korean Air.
AFI performs GP7200 work at its CRMA facility in Paris, where it started doing certain component repairs about four years ago, both for Air
France and other operators. Generally, people
start with overhaul and then do some repair activities, but for the GP7200 it was the other way
round: we started by developing repairs as we
had to feed into and answer requests from the
network, Louis says.
At the end of 2013, CRMA was still the unique
source for GP7200 combustor chamber and turbine centre frame repairs, though it was still to
receive any major components from Air France.
We have worked for OEMs before as subcontractors for repairs, but we have never been the primary source for them, as is the case for the
GP7200, comments Louis.
The goal of taking on such responsibilities is
for AFI to achieve full capabilities on the engine
by the end of 2014. The first restoration shop visits for Air Frances engines are supposed to occur
in 2015, though Louis fears that several might

need attention earlier. If that is the case the affected engines will probably be routed to GE
Wales, as AFIs test bench capabilities for the
GP7200 are not expected to come on line until
2015.
To help with logistics planning for its customers, EA developed the split ship concept for
A380 engines. Thus the GP7200s propulsor can
be easily separated from its fan case, which is too
large to fit through the side cargo doors of most
freighter aircraft. Since it is problems in the
propulsor that usually drive an engine off-wing,
this means that airlines can easily box up repairs
for delivery to maintenance, repair and overhaul
(MRO) shops without chartering specialised aircraft. It also means that airlines can stock spare
propulsors which comprise the fan disk, LPC
and accessory gearbox rather than entire engines.
Nonetheless, Air France holds two spare
GP7200s in its inventory, with one more on order
and another due for delivery in about a years
time. Despite EAs efforts to ease certain aspects
of GP7200 servicing, Louis notes that line maintenance has become more complex for modern
engines. Perhaps its a new trend for the new
class of engines that are supposed to spend a long
time on wing, he says. We need to provide more
resources around the engine when they are on
wing in order to pay more attention than before
because we want to prevent removals. Its not the
same way of managing engines as for the CF6 or
CFM56.
Aerospace fasteners
meeting new demands
Already wide, the range of fasteners for aerospace applications continues to grow as manufacturers
develop new drive systems and respond to the demands of composite structures. Bernard Fitzsimons
reports.
ne of the principal motives for using

composites is the opportunity they
offer to fabricate larger structural components as single pieces rather than multiple
piece parts fastened together by rivets, bolts and
other varieties of fastener. The 787s first fuselage
barrel, for example, eliminated 1,500 sheets of
aluminium and more than 40,000 fasteners an
80 per cent reduction. Fewer than 10,000 need to
be drilled in the Dreamliners fuselage, compared
with the one million required by the 747.
But composite components do not respond
well to localised concentrated loading, so fasteners need bigger heads. Aluminium and steel are
unsuitable for use with carbon fibre/epoxy composites because they can lead to galvanic corrosion of the alloy. There are other issues, too, such
as vibration and water absorption. So fasteners
for composite applications are typically made of
titanium or stainless steel.
Monogram Aerospace Fasteners, which pioneered the blind bolt, developed the ComposiLok with a large blind side bearing area to
distribute bearing loads over a wide area and
avoid damaging the composite material, while
enabling the fastener to impart very high clamp
loads. More recently Monogram introduced the
Mechani-Lok blind bolt with a corrosion resistant stainless steel body and titanium alloy core
as a fastener for primary structures in both laminated composites and high-strength metal alloys. To minimise installation errors it uses a
disposable drive nut.
Many established fastener manufacturers
have been taken over by bigger names, following
the broader trend toward aerospace industry
consolidation. Like its rivals, the biggest name in
the business, Alcoa Fastening Systems (AFS) has
pursued growth by acquisition in recent years.
Since acquiring Huck Fasteners in 2000, it has
added Fairchild Fasteners, locknut specialist Republic Fastener Manufacturing, Van Petty Manufacturing and the UKs Linread to its portfolio.
Today, AFS produces more than 1.5 million active
part numbers and delivers well over a billion
parts to aerospace customers each year.
The result, according to Salim Gulamany,
head of global supply chain solutions, is that AFS
is now more solution provider than supplier.
This year AFS will ship over half a billion dollars
in revenue through our supply chain programmes, he says. Managed through logistics
centres in Simi Valley, California and Aichach,
Germany, they include min/max, vendor managed inventory (VMI) and forecast call-up capacity programmes.
We manage tens of thousands of parts numbers, adds Gulamany. We ship tens of millions
of pieces every year on dozens of contracts, and
we ship to anywhere between one and 30 cus-
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Installation of the first Airbus Sharklet wingtip device.
tomer locations depending on the supply chain

programme.
Precision Castparts, similarly, has acquired a
raft of fastener brands, including those produced
by Cherry Aerospace, the originator of the blind
rivet, and locknut specialist SPS Technologies.
Another subsidiary, Shur-Lok, offers a range of
fasteners for advanced composites. They include
bonded-on studs and insert plates, supplied with
pre-attached thermoplastic adhesive that is
melted by the application of heat to the fastener.
There are also bonded mechanical types that use
a combination of adhesive and mechanical
means for retention in the structure, and nonmetallic inserts and spacers designed primarily
for sandwich structures.
Despite the reduced fastener count in composite structures, aircraft manufacturers continue to use enormous quantities. Boeing used
more than 600 million in 2012, and LISI Aerospace points out that no fewer than half of the six
million components used to make an A380 are
fasteners. LISI itself makes more than 250,000

fastener references.
The acquisitions that have helped propel LISI
to number three position in the global fastener
market include Hi-Shear, originator of the widely
used Hi-Lok and Hi-Lite externally threaded
pins. LISI has developed the Pull-In/Pull-Stem
with improved mechanical properties, while the
Sleeve Taper Hi-Lite is designed for critical applications that demand both mechanical per-
formance and low access. It also allows for interference fit installation without causing damage
to the composite structure, and addresses lightning protection.
According to LISI Aerospace, the fastener
accounts for only around 20 per cent of the
total cost of an aircraft assembly, with tooling,
jigs, man-hours and other costs making up the
rest. To streamline the installation process the
company has developed the Aster five lobe
driving system, which makes it possible to
apply more sustained torque to the fastener
than conventional hex recesses. The Aster driving system can also be used in place of conventional hexagonal bits on fastener installation
robots.
Family-owned Ateliers de la Haute-Garonne
(AHG), meanwhile, has been making aerospace
rivets since 1950, first for Dassault, then for Airbus and subsequently for Boeing too. Since 2000
it has diversified into threaded fasteners, including bolts, screws and aluminium lockbolts: in
2012 the companys factories in Toulouse and
Morocco forged 650 tonnes of material and
turned out around 1.5 billion items, including 45
million screws.
Daily production includes seven million
solid rivets, representing more than 30,000 different references and including the FybrComp
and FybrFast solid rivets for composite applications. Made of titanium or A-286 stainless
steel and installed using existing riveting tools,
FybrComp offers controlled radial shank expansion while ensuing no delamination on the
bulb side.
The flush head Fybrfast has an annular
groove on the shank of the rivet to prevent delamination of composite materials surrounding
the area of deformation. Fybrfast also has a
greater grip length range than traditional solid
rivets and can be used for assemblies requiring
both a flush head and a flush tail. For blind fastening, AHG has developed the Fybrflush blind
bolt with a large blind bulb for composite applications.
New drive
Consolidation means fewer, bigger players,
says Mike Mowins, president of threaded fas-
In an aerospace fastener application you always want the

driving tool to be slightly weaker than the ultimate strength
of the recess.
Mike Mowins, president, Phillips Screw
tener specialist Phillips Screw, but opportunities

remain for small and mid-size companies selling
through distributors or stockholders such as B/E
Aerospace Consumables Management, Pattonair
and Wesco. B/E, which has itself grown through
multiple acquisitions, now stocks more than
825,000 part numbers from over 3,000 suppliers
and has a daily throughput of more than 15,000
orders.
Since inventing the original Phillips screw
in the 1930s, Phillips has been a research and
development company that licenses the technologies it develops to manufacturers. We
have a global network of about 100 manufacturers, says Mowins. That includes the makers of
the fasteners themselves, those who make the
driving tools whether screwdriver bits or external sockets and the makers of the
punches and gauges that forge and check the
quality of the recesses in the head of the screw
and the gauges for the bits and external sockets
that turn them.
Currently, the company is in the final stages
of testing its new External MORTORQ Super
drive system with a major aircraft engine maker,
which aims to use the fasteners on its engines for
the Boeing 787 and Airbus A350. External MOR-
Phillips has developed the original MORTORQ

recess design to produce the Super, shown here
in micro screw application, and six-lobe External
Super.
TORQ Super was developed to solve the problems with 12 point and hex-head fasteners, he
says specifically, their relatively heavy weight
and the fact that their heads offer limited contact
with the sockets that drive them.
The solution involved applying the concept of
the MORTORQ internal recess, which was developed as a replacement for earlier drive systems
such as Torq-Set and Tri-Wing. Designed to
solve problems of effective torque transmission in
fasteners with low profile or 100-degree flush
heads, MORTORQ uses a patented, curved recess
that ensures full mating of the contact surface between driving tool and recess when torque is applied.
It was chosen as the floorboard fastener for
the 787 and its applications are growing, Mowins
says: It has wide usage now at Rolls-Royce and
weve just finished a first round of new titanium
internal MORTORQ fasteners for use on the
XWB engine thats going to power the A350.
Other applications include the Lockheed C-5M
Galaxy modernisation programme, the MBDA
Meteor missile and fuel access panels on newly
overhauled Fokker airliners.
In the course of Phillips work with RollsRoyce, he says, we talked to them about developing an external drive system to replace 12 point
bi-hex heads fasteners that are typically larger
in diameter than what we had been used to dealing with. The main aim was to save weight. If we
can take weight out of the aircraft by replacing
the 12 point or hex head bolts on the airframe,
that has a significant impact on the cost of fuel
that the airline has to buy, says Mowins.
A lower profile drive system that provides
greater contact area on the removal side is also
optimised for servicing and maintainability, he
notes. That is key for the airline operator but
also key at the end of life of the airframe so that
it can be easily disassembled and parts that can
be recycled can be easily moved off into that
green stream. The weight saving has also attracted automotive industry users.
As well as the MORTORQ, Phillips has developed the MORTORQ Super for industrial applications. In an aerospace fastener application you
always want the driving tool to be slightly weaker
than the ultimate strength of the recess, he explains. If you have a panel which is attached to
the aircraft and you have to get it out, which
would you rather fail, the driving tool that youre
trying to use to remove the fastener, or the recess
in the head of the fastener, which means you
have to drill it out? Obviously youre going to
want to fail the tool because you can always take
another out of the toolbox, heat the area around
the fastener, spray it with some penetrating oil,
tap it with a hammer to relieve the corrosion or
whatever, then try to remove it a second time
with a new tool.
In the industrial world, by contrast, maintainability is less of an issue: instead, the desire
is to avoid stopping the production line to
change the driving tool, so it is of upmost importance for the driving tool to last as long as
possible.
Phillips response was to take the original
MORTORQ concept, truncate the wings and increase the core diameter slightly to make the driving tool stronger: That became our MORTORQ
Super, says Mowins. The design has found widespread applications, not only in the automotive
world but in the micro-screw range as well.
The next step was to take the greater torque
capability and truncated lobe design and reverse
the concept, so that the driver bit became the
head of the bolt and the socket and the screw
became the driving socket on the outside of the
head. It wasnt a great leap, Mowins comments,
but we went from a four-lobe internal to a six
lobe external and actually came up with a better
design, one that is more easily forgeable.
Companies that actually make the aircraft
and automotive bolts found the design easier to
forge than fasteners such as the 12 point bi-hex,
because those heads have to be extruded a long
way to achieve the tall head height needed to
provide enough torque in the narrow contact
areas to drive the bolt. Because we have such
great contact area in the MORTORQ Super, we
dont have to have as tall a head, and hence its
easier to forge, concludes Mowins.
Lean manufacturing
and business wide
information systems
A
erospace manufacturers are continually

being monitored for delivery performance, cost and quality by their customers.
Delivering on these metrics requires constant attention, tweaking and agility to meet ever-changing needs nothing stands still for long.
The development of lean manufacturing
techniques by Toyota, or the Toyota Production
System as it was originally called, is widely
recognised as the single biggest influence on the
companys rise into the automotive giant it is
today. The principles behind lean techniques
can be applied to nearly any business and aerospace & defence is one of the few industries that
has really embraced the methodology and its
ethos, and is most often associated with process
improvement and cost reduction in manufacturing.
Most businesses subscribe to the notion of
continuous process improvement with one common area of focus being the flow of product from
supplier to customer. Naturally, any process that
Aerospace manufacturing has embraced the methodology and ethos

of lean techniques. Kathie Poindexter, product marketing manager
at Epicor Software Corporation, looks at how the effective use of
ERP technology can deliver lean manufacturing.
impedes the smooth flow of product is a source
of additional cost to the company.
The process inefficiencies that lean techniques address arent unfamiliar or exotic; in fact,
they exist in every organisation. In particular, the
processes that contribute value directly to the
customer, the value stream, need the application of lean techniques. Redesigning processes
so that they reduce the delays inherent in the
flow of information from one part of the organisation to another is one example of applying lean
principles to business.
Innovative manufacturers who deploy lean
methodologies business-wide reap huge benefits
in terms of customer satisfaction and overall
business performance. The key here is that it

must be business-wide, not limited, for example,
to the production shop floor. Lean manufacturers consider the expenditure of resources for any
goal other than the creation of value for the end
customer to be wasteful, and thus a target for
elimination. Think about that for a moment
you could easily argue that all of the processes
lead to that end goal, but could you say that yours
are working as efficiently as they could? Are they
automated wherever possible?
It might seem a little flippant but there is a
joke that the manufacturing facility of the future
will employ just a man and a dog. The man will
be there to feed the dog. The dog will be there to
make sure the man doesnt touch anything. There

is most certainly some truth in this. As technology develops, where will the potential to automate and be leaner take us?
So, where to focus?

Where to focus attention is going to be specific to your business, it will depend on how
much of a lean operation you already run, and
whether you have a continuous improvement
methodology in place. But lets start looking at it
from the perspective of the customer who consumes a product or service; value is defined as
any action that creates benefit for the customer,
anything outside of that is waste.
With that in mind, lets explore some examples aimed at reducing costs specifically,
around demand-driven purchasing for lean operations. Were looking for immediate benefits to
the business and the value chain for the customer.
Here are three areas where the application of
technology and a lean mind-set can deliver value
for the customer:
G Purchasing and suppliers;
Aerospace manufacturers like Boeing have embraced the lean methodology and its ethos.
G Sales orders;
G Shipping.
Automation across these areas impacts how

well a company can deliver products to its customers, but the results are not always as expected. As we have already acknowledged,
technology is key in modern manufacturing organisations that aspire to the lean methodology,
and many do implement enterprise resource
planning (ERP) because they want to integrate
and manage disparate business processes with a
single point of control.
Thats good as far as it goes the problem is
that it doesnt go far enough. Simply implementing the system is like giving it a name and filing
it away job done. In reality, any ERP solution
needs to be tailored to the organisations needs.
One size does not fit all generic ERP capability
does not trump sector-specific expertise.
So lets look at some brief examples in each of
these areas that can be improved through the effective use of ERP technology to deliver lean
manufacturing.
Purchasing and suppliers
It is not uncommon for parts to have a limited
shelf life and if this information is not managed
correctly and stock used in the correct orders, it
can easily lead to delays on the delivery of customer orders, with products left in mid-production as they wait for new deliveries of
components or lubricants that appeared to be in
stock. It is easy to ensure that an ERP system not
only requires and records this information, but
uses it for production planning to ensure excessive stock is not held and waste reduced.
Sales orders
The sales order process is the trigger for everything else in the manufacturing cycle, so it has to
be right. Promises made at this point can make or
break relationships in the long-term, for example,
if delivery dates are given that do not reflect the existing production schedule. Giving sales teams access to the production schedule makes those
predictions more accurate if the whole sales
process is part of the same ERP system. But its not
just about lead times, customers want accurate
quotes quickly, and to be able to talk about discounts and bespoke elements of their orders with
one person. ERP can enable this by embedding
business rules into the sales process, so that sales
teams can offer discounts to a threshold, and where
appropriate, influence the production schedule.
This makes the sales process faster, more accurate,
and therefore more likely to lead to happy customers placing orders a foundation on which
long-term relationships can be built.
Shipping
Shipping is the end goal of any production
process, and it should mean that all tasks preceding it have been completed it is the endpoint
for their efforts. However it is all too easy to assume that a product should be shipped once ready
when there may be other influences over whether
that shipment should proceed, for example, if a
supplier has alerted you to a component fault or a
customer has requested stock is not to be delivered before a certain date. These and many other
controls such as customer account credit checks
can be automated through business rules in an
ERP system to ensure high customer satisfaction
and a reduced risk to the manufacturer.
Small changes can make a big

difference
There is nothing new about lean. The very
concepts and philosophies that we now take for
granted Just In Time; Kaizen, the policy of
continuous improvement; and job rotation to increase workforce skills and flexibility were developed by the Japanese motor industry. It
allowed them to out-spec domestic motor manufacturing competition (radios and carpets as
standard!) and become a huge global success in
many sectors, not just cars.
Lean is one big idea, but its composed of a
myriad of small changes, improvements and developments that you can monitor, measure and act
upon.
The key is to use technology such as ERP systems to ensure up-to-the-minute data is at the
fingertips of every process, decision and person
that adds to the value chain. Its not just about
technology, its a mindset and an opportunity to
look again at how you do business.
Your competitors are in no better shape than
you. Theyve suffered the same problems, the same
issues, but it is those who act to change their business outside the manufacturing process that reap
the greatest rewards that lean dangles in front of us.
DATA & DIRECTIVES
FAA airworthiness directives - large aircraft

Summary of biweekly listings for the last two months
Biweekly 2013-18
2013-05-08C
2013-15-10S
Airbus
Rolls-Royce
A330 & A340

RB211
2013-15-13
Boeing
757-200, -200PF, -200CB, and -300
2013-15-17
Boeing
737 series
2013-15-18S
Lockheed Martin
L-1011
2013-16-23
Rolls-Royce
RB211
2013-16-24S
Boeing
747
2013-16-25
Bombardier
DHC-8-400, -401, and -402
2013-16-26
Airbus
A330 & A340
2013-17-03
Airbus
A330 & A340
2013-17-05
Bombardier
CL600
2013-17-09
Airbus
A318, A319, A320 & A321
Replace the O-ring seals as required by AD.

Supersedes AD 2012-10-12. Remove the existing IP
compressor balance weights.
Perform an operational test of the engine fuel suction
feed of the fuel system, and do all applicable
corrective actions IAW SB 757-28A0131.
Do the initial operational test identified in
Airworthiness Limitation (AWL) No. 28-AWL-101,
Engine Fuel Suction Feed Operational Test. Perform
all related testing and corrective actions.
Supersedes AD 2005-15-01. Repeat inspection at
times specified in AD.
Perform a one-time inspection of the FCL metering
panel to determine if it is made from N75 material,
and if made from N75 material, replace it with one
made from C263 material.
Supersedes AD 90-23-14. Do external detailed and
HFEC inspections for cracks in the stringer 6 skin lap
splice, and do all applicable corrective actions IAW
SB 747-53-2253. Install the doubler modification,
and do all applicable related investigative and
corrective actions.
For the nacelle of the engine primary zone, remove
any APD having part number (P/N) 10-1098 and
install a new APD having P/N 10-1098-01. For the
nacelle of the landing gear primary zone, remove any
APD having P/N 10-1097 or 10-1097-01 and install a
new APD having P/N 10-1097-02. Remove any APD
having P/N 10-1096, 10-1096-01, or 10-1096-02 and
install a new APD having P/N 10-1096-02.
Do a detailed inspection of outer skin rivets at the
frame fork end of FR21 and FR20B of the forward
cargo door for sheared, loose, or missing rivets; and
do a detailed inspection of the whole FR21 and
FR20B forks for cracks and for sheared, loose, or
missing rivets at the frame web and flanges. Repair
any cracking.
Replace the affected WTB with a serviceable WTB,
IAW the Instructions of Airbus AOT A27L001-12.
Replace the affected bellcrank supports with new
bellcrank supports IAW SB 670BA-27-064.
Do a detailed inspection of the gaps between the
ballscrew shaft and tie-rod splines on any THSA
having P/N 47145-XXX (where XXX stands for any
numerical value) to determine if the corrosion
category isType I, Type II, or Type III IAW SB
A320-27-1214. If applicable, replace the affected
THSA with a THSA that meets the criteria specified.
Biweekly 2013-19
2013-17-06
Fokker Services
F.27 & F.28
2013-17-07
General Electric
GE90
2013-17-08S
Boeing
747 series
Do a torque check of the nuts and circuit breakers,

contactors, and terminal blocks of the EPC and
battery relay panel, as applicable; and do all
applicable adjustments of the torque values IAW
SBF50-24-032. Do a general visual inspection of the
contacts and nuts on circuit breakers, contactors, and
terminal blocks of the EPC and battery relay panel to
determine if either the lock washer, flat washer and
nut, or locking nut and flat washer are installed; and
do all applicable installations. Apply torque
inspection lacquer.
Perform an initial on-wing borescope inspection
(BSI) of the stage 1 HPT stator shrouds for corrosion
and oxidation. Perform a 360-degree BSI of the stage
1 HPT stator shrouds for corrosion and oxidation.
Supersedes AD 2010-20-08. Do a detailed inspection
for cracking on the frame strap, inner chords forward
and aft of the web, and exposed web adjacent to the
inner chords from stringer 15 to 31. Do an HFEC
inspection of the station 2231 frame fastener
locations for cracking from stringer 16 to 31,
including locations common to the upper main sill
strap and stringer clip at stringer 16. Do an HFEC
inspection for cracking of the frame inner chords
around the fastener heads from stringer 15 to 31. Do
DATA & DIRECTIVES
FAA airworthiness directives large aircraft (cont...)
2013-18-02
Boeing
767 series
2013-18-09
Honeywell ASCa
ELT RESCU 406AF and 406AFN
2013-19-02
Airbus
A330
an HFEC inspection for cracking of the aft edge of

the aft inner chord, of the forward edge of the forward
inner chord, and of the forward and aft edges of the
frame strap from stringer 15 to 31. Do an LFEC
inspection for cracking of the station 2231 frame
strap from stringer 16 to 31 in areas covered by the
reveal. Repair any cracking found IAW SB 74753A2450.
Do a detailed inspection of the cap seal for damaged
sealant on the nuts common to outboard flap support
rib numbers 1, 2, 7, and 8, and do all applicable
related investigative and corrective actions IAW SB
767-57A013.
Remove and inspect IAW SB 152682-23-A22. If any
discrepancy is found that is unacceptable or exceeds
limits as specified, return the TU or battery pack, as
applicable, to Honeywell ASCa.
For specified aircraft, replace wiring harness 5877VB
located in section 19.1, Frame 91 to Frame 96 IAW
SB A330-92-3116.
Biweekly 2013-20
2013-18-08S
Boeing
737-200, -200C, -300, -400, and -500
2013-19-03
Boeing
737 NG
2013-19-04
Boeing
737 NG
2013-19-08
Boeing
727, 737, 747
2013-19-09
Airbus
A318, A319, A320, A321
2013-19-13
Boeing
747 series
2013-19-15
Boeing
747 series
2013-19-17C
Rolls-Royce
RB211
2013-19-18
2013-19-20
Rolls-Royce
Boeing
RB211
DC-10-10 and MD-10-10F
2013-19-21S
Rolls-Royce
RB211
2013-19-22
Boeing
717-200
Supersedes AD 2004-18-06. For specified aircraft, do

external detailed and eddy current inspections of the
crown area and other known areas of the fuselage
skin cracking IAW SB 737-53A1210.
Do a general visual inspection of hydraulic tubing
having part numbers (P/Ns) 272A4451-136 and
272A4451-137, and wire bundles W6128, W7122,
W8122, and W8222 for wire chafing or damage,
install new clamps in the right MLG wheel well, and
do all applicable corrective actions IAW SB 737-29-1113.
Do detailed and high frequency eddy current (HFEC)
inspections of the skin for cracking in the area around
the eight fasteners securing the STA 540 bulkhead
chords between stringers S-22 and S-23, and do all
applicable corrective actions IAW SB 737-53-1294.
Do a general visual inspection of the left and right
angle of attack (AOA) sensor as applicable, to
determine if a certain AOA sensor with a paddle type
vane is installed.
Install the AoA sensor plates in accordance with the
applicable method specified in AD. Do not install any
AoA sensor conic plate having P/N F3411060200000
or P/N F3411060900000, and do not use any AoA
protection cover having P/N 98D34 203003000.
Determine if the latches in the main deck escape
slide/rafts and the escape slides installed on the
airplane doors are correctly assembled, and do all
applicable corrective actions IAW SB 747-25-3428.
Do a detailed inspection for the presence of repairs at
the aft upper corner of the MED 5 cutout, and
measure the edge margin at certain fastener locations
around the corner of the door cutout IAW SB 74753A2839. If a repair is found, inspect or change the
repair. If no repair is found, do detailed and high
frequency eddy current (HFEC) inspections for any
cracking of the fuselage skin assembly and bear strap
in the aft upper corner area of the door cutout, as
applicable, and do all applicable corrective actions.
Recalculate the life of the low-pressure (LP) turbine
disc stage 2, intermediate-pressure (IP) compressor
rotor shaft (stage 1 to 6), high-pressure (HP)
compressor rear rotor shaft assembly, and HP turbine
disc installed on that engine.
Re-calculate the cyclic life since new of each LPT stage 2 disc.
Replace the MLG upper torque link bolt with a new
or serviceable bolt IAW SB DC10-32A260. A review
of airplane maintenance records is acceptable if the
part number of the bolt can be conclusively
determined from that review.
Supersedes AD 2012-04-13. Clean and perform a
fluorescent-penetrant inspection of the HP
compressor stage 1 to 4 rotor disc.
Do a general visual inspection and a high frequency
eddy current (HFEC) inspection for cracking of the
left-side and right-side overwing frames at stations
674, 696, and 715; and do all applicable corrective
actions IAW SB 717-53A0034.
DATA & DIRECTIVES
FAA airworthiness directives large aircraft (cont...)

2013-19-23
Boeing
737 series
2013-20-09
Bombardier
CL-215-6B11 (CL-415 Variant)
2013-20-12
Boeing
767-200, -300, -300F, and -400ER
Revise the maintenance program by incorporating the

information specified in AD.
Replace the existing MDC rack panel assembly with a
new rack panel assembly IAW SB 215-A4436.
Revise the maintenance program to incorporate the
specified maintenance review board (MRB) item. Do
a detailed inspection to detect discrepancies
(including bronze transfer, heat discoloration,
darkened streaks, thermal spray coating distress,
wear, cracking, smearing of material into the
lubrication grooves, or grease not appearing in the
bushing inner diameters when applied through the
lube fittings) of the MLG pivot pins, truck beam
bushings, and inner cylinder bushings, and do all
applicable corrective actions IAW SB 767-32A0227.
Inspect the MLG truck beam and inner cylinders,
using a detailed inspection, etch inspection, and
fluorescent penetrant inspection (FPI), as applicable,
to detect applicable discrepancies, and do all
applicable related investigative and corrective actions
(including configuration changes).
Note:
The letter C after the AD number denotes a correction to the original AD
The letter S after the AD number indicates that the AD supersedes a previous AD
The letter R after the AD number indicates a revision to the original AD
The letter E after the AD number indicates an emergency AD
The letters FR indicate the final rule of an emergency AD
Please note that the above information is quoted for interest purposes. The latest versions of the ADs issued by the FAA must be used for reference purposes
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December 2013 - January 2014 Issue 127

Secrets of an MRO giant

Boeing 737 MAX

Tablets and the future

Learn more at exxonmobil.com/aviation

December 2013 - January 2014 Issue: 127

A round-up of the latest news,

Aircraft Technology Engineering & Maintenance (ATE&M)

Front cover: Gregor Schlger/Lufthansa

Germanys global MRO giant

GP7200 programme update

MRO focus: Middle East

Aerospace fasteners meeting

30. 737 MAX programme update

36. Tablets and the future of EFBs

Aerospace oils and lubricants

DATA & DIRECTIVES

60. Lean manufacturing and business wide

FAA AD biweekly summary listings

ATE&M is the official publication of the

With everything from component support and maintenance

More mobility for the world

HAECO ACQUISITION OF TIMCO ALL ABOUT

S Aircraft Technology - Issue 127 S

AJW Aviation has been awarded the

At MTU Maintenance, we believe in streamlined, cost-effective results. We are the worlds

ENGINE COMPANIES AND INDUSTRY PLAYERS

Logistics group Norbert Dentressangle Overseas has opened an aviation

Jeppesen has completed rapid decompression tests of a new iPad Air.

Chromalloy is set to expand its manufacturing capability at its Tampa,

MAEL OPENS NEW BIRMINGHAM HANGAR

S Aircraft Technology - Issue 127 S

KEEP YOUR FLEET UP IN THE AIR.

Visit DeltaTechOpsMRO.com, call

CAN ASH CLOUD DISRUPTION BE AVOIDED?

SNAPON TOOLING AT NEW MAEL FACILITY

S Aircraft Technology - Issue 127 S

Abu Dhabi Aircraft Technologies has

Boeing, Mubadala in supplier

Chromalloy acquires Trac

AIRBUS INTRODUCES SHARKLETS RETROFIT

Chromalloy has acquired Trac, a tier one

IAE LAUNCHES PUREV DESIGNATION

LHT ACQUIRES 15 PER CENT HOLDING IN AEROTURBINE

EIRTECH, TES IN JOINT CAMO AGREEMENT

SPACEBASED ADSB CONSTELLATION

Rolls-Royce Trent 900 passes

GE, UCRI confirm collaboration

FINAL ASSEMBLY OF MRJ TEST AIRCRAFT

RUAG Technology will be rebranded

Cardiff Aviation and Serco have joined

LHT DEVELOPS CFC INSTALLATION PROCESS

Lufthansa CityLine has implemented

ROLLSROYCE, MUBADALA ACTDS JOIN FORCES

WILLIS LEASE LAUNCHES AFTERMARKET SUBSIDIARY

SKYONE, LMKAC FORM ALLIANCE

10 S Aircraft Technology - Issue 127 S

Avtrade is set to expand its Singapore

ARSA launches AVMRO

Alcoa, VSMPO-AVISMA form JV

TALSCO TO RESUME OPERATIONS

QANTAS CALLS TIME ON AVALON

GE INVESTS IN LOW EMISSION BIOFUEL

ICING CONCERN OVER GENX