ASAP AM Spares Blog

The Test Flight: Siemens AG, the German engineering company has teamed up with Airbus in an effort to research and eventually build a working hybrid-electric aircraft.Earlier this April, Siemens had announced its plan to fly one of its aircrafts using its new 260kw electric motor.Three months later, the firm was able to successfully fly the aircraft using the Siemens electric motor. The 2,200 pound Extra 300LE aircraft only flew for thirty minutes and a short distance from the Schwarze Haide Airport.

Private equity firm AE Industrial Partners, LLC (“AEI”) acquired Aerospace Parts Manufacturer AC&A. The PE firm investment is headquartered in Boca Raton, Florida and their portfolio consists of investments in aerospace, power generation and specialty automotive companies. The newly acquired AC&A specialize in manufacturing composite and metallic parts and tooling. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

The Great Elephant in the room in regards to aerospace and defense industries has long been the issues with short production cycles contrasted by long service cycles. The issue doesn’t come from manufacturing the parts needed for new missions or critical programs as that can be expedited to meet the deadline set forth. The real issues stems from trying to source these parts ten or twenty years down the road when they are obsolete but many legacy programs are still utilizing the components. The three most exasperating challenges that this presents to most aerospace and defense supply chains are as follows.

The Airbus A320neo aircraft has finally reached the last step of production and had its Pratt & Whitney Pure Power PW1100-JM engines installed. LATAM Airlines Brazil is the first customer and will be the first recipient of the aircraft in South America. This makes the carrier the first of its type in operation in Latin America. All that is left before the aircraft undergoes ground and flight testing is cabin furnishings.

ASL Airlines, the passenger and freight airline formerly known as Air Contractors, has recently completed the acquisition of the airlines operations of TNT Express, which is comprised of Pan Líneas Aéreas Spain as well as TNT Airways Belgium. These two recently acquired airlines will be renamed as ASL Airlines Space and ASL Airlines Belgium respectively.

Bergen Cable Technology offers a set of safety cables to help streamline ordinary tedious MRO (Maintenance, Repair and Operations).  These cables are designed to cut down on time, waste, and effort.  The Bergen safety cables are better alternatives to normal wire cables that branch out when cut off the rest of the roll which decreases the rick of FOD (foreign object damage.) Examinations have been ran using these safety cables and have proven to reduce 50 percent of installation time assuring quality ability to lock wire safety and efficiently.

China Eastern Airlines continues to expand their long-haul fleet with a purchase of 15 787-9 Dreamliners from Boeing. The agreement was finalized earlier this year in April and will cost China Eastern close to $4 billion. This investment is part of China Eastern’s strategy to increase global trading. Increasing air traffic along existing routes between China, North America and Europe enables China Eastern to meet international competitiveness and increase profits. The 787-9 Dreamliners join the 777-300ER, another fuel efficient carrier designed by Boeing, as part of China Eastern’s fleet. Together, the two aircrafts are projected to open 100 new nonstop point-to-point routes which help increase their market presence. The fuel efficient carriers also have more capacity and cargo payload, which ensure more room for profitability.

The French take precautions over the 2016 Euro Cup hosting stadiums. Authorities are setting forth a plan to prevent air traffic and drone usage over the participating stadiums. The tournament will take place during June 10 and will last all the way to July 10. During those times the Chief security of the Euro Cup, Ziad Khoury has said that there will be an absolute “NO FLY ZONE “over those stadiums that will be participating and training during the course to the Cup.

On May 25^th 2016, Reuters released an article about how FACC fires CEO after the company was caught with cyber fraud. FACC is an Austrian company that makes and manufactures aerospace parts. The cost of the cyber fraud totals up to about $47 million or 42 million euros. Once this occurred, there was an immediate meeting that was held on Tuesday with the supervisory board for FACC. The supervisory board decided to dismiss CEO Walter Stephan immediately after 14 hours of discussion.

Hundreds of maintenance workers from all over America recently gathered together in Dallas for the Aerospace Maintenance Competition at the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center.