Tag: Featured Story

SkySelect was formed in 2017 with the aim of making the buying process for aircraft spares as fast and efficient as possible. Ian Harbison spoke to Erkki Brakmann, founder and CEO.

AVM: You have an interesting company network – Estonia, California, Chile.

EB: The COVID-19 pandemic has taught us that location is no longer important. We set up originally in Tallinn, where there is a great talent pool for IT development. California is in one of the largest aerospace markets and home to many suppliers and also to our investors. As for Santiago, that reflects a more traditional way of working, of being close to your customer – LATAM was one of our early contracts.

It is also worth pointing out that SkySelect was founded not just by IT professionals, our staff members also have airline and supplier experience as well.

AVM: Why did you feel the buying process needed a helping hand?

EB: The way buyers are used to purchasing parts has not changed over the last 20-30 years, but the world has evolved quite a bit during that time. Airlines and MROs generally purchase used serviceable material (USM) in small quantities and at the last minute to avoid the overheads of holding inventory but, even if there is a well-established supply chain with preferred partners, searching for best mix of suppliers, evaluating what is the best option and placing an order itself is labor and time intensive. Automating the process is more efficient and can also produce cost savings.

AVM: How is this achieved?

EB: We use application programming interfaces (APIs) to connect the customer’s ERP system with the IT systems of the suppliers. By establishing buying rules, such as priorities (routine, urgent, AOG), location and price limits, the process becomes automatic. Computers work 24/7 and can process thousands of part requirements simultaneously speeding up the purchasing cycle from a purchasing requirement to an order up to 10x. They can also consolidate orders, so there may be a price advantage from volume. The process scales up and down automatically depending on demand.

We use algorithms and machine learning to enhance the search and ordering procedures. Remember, considerable amount of purchasing is close to ‘Just In Time’, so price may not always be the main driver. For example, the customer may be prepared to pay a premium to get hold of a component that is in a closer location, so that the delivery time is shorter to meet the deadline for a departing aircraft.

Of course, the system is constantly evolving, as we bring improvements. These have included automated follow up on open orders and shipment tracking to boost on time deliveries, machine learning algorithm to match parts with the best suppliers and advanced analytics. The Hosted Catalogs section provides instant access to quotes from catalogs uploaded by suppliers.

In addition to modern APIs, the system is compatible with the SPEC2000 industry standard, meaning it is easy to send orders and receive acknowledgements and to get messages on order changes, shipment notifications and invoices.

AVM: You say the process is automatic but are there limits?

EB: Initially, customers may check every purchasing suggestion offered by SkySelect’s algorithms but, as they gain confidence in the system, they let it become more autonomous. While that works for around 90% of orders, some parts tend to be very expensive, so these will usually be flagged for individual review and even negotiation with the supplier.

AVM: Cradle to grave paperwork is becoming ever more important, especially in relation to maintaining asset values. How does that operate in an automatic environment?

EB: That can still be a holding factor in maximizing the efficiency of the process but digitization of records is becoming more common.

AVM: Have there been any changes since the United Kingdom left the European Union and EASA?

EB: As that means a UK-sourced component can no longer be released on a Form1, with dual EASA/FAA approval, we find that customers tend to prefer a European source if they are buying in that market area.

AVM: What does your customer base look like?

EB: We have airlines such as JetBlue, Avianca, Azul, Icelandair and LATAM, with TAP Portugal joining in June this year, as did Magnetic MRO, joining Aero Norway on the MRO side.

AVM: And you have just added a new customer – can you tell us who that is?

EB: Yes, Azul Linhas Aéreas and SkySelect have been working closely together to transform their aircraft parts purchasing process. Leveraging our advanced aviation material purchasing system powered by algorithms and robotic process automation, Azul Linhas Aéreas has restructured its parts purchasing and tracking, bringing greater efficiency to its aircraft maintenance processes, saving the carrier both time and money. As one of the largest airlines in South America, Azul Linhas Aéreas currently has a fleet of 143 aircraft flying to 114 destinations. Given the size and scale of the carrier’s operations, it’s imperative to have a parts purchasing system and service that’s transparent, trusted and scalable.

AVM: It is easy to see how the system works for buyers but what advantages do suppliers get out of It?

EB: Suppliers get access to real demand from the end users and close to real-time. This speeds up the decision making process benefitting the suppliers who have live connection with SkySelect. They can also keep their inventory details private, away from competitors. If they are selected, an order can be generated easily or even automatically and SkySelect allows for easy feedback from the customer, perhaps resulting in faster payment by getting answers on open issues. Requests also give an insight into current market demands, which can assist with future procurement plans.

AVM: Of course, airlines may also want to get rid of surplus inventory.

EB: We do help with it as a value-added service, but our focus is on providing the most efficient and economic way of purchasing spares.

AVM: How is the market these days?

EB: Pre-COVID, there was a shortage of both feedstock and a supply of used serviceable material (USM). Now, with many more aircraft retirements, compared to the average 1,100 recorded in recent years, there are a lot of parts from these aircraft that can be used to keep the aircraft in service. In addition, some carriers have changed their business model, such as Norwegian Air Shuttle exiting the long-haul market, so relatively new aircraft are being returned to lessors. There are also airlines that embarked on fleet renewal, such as United Airlines buying 270 Boeing and Airbus jets, and new aircraft obviously require less maintenance and parts.

AVM: How does that affect the buying process?

EB: With so much material available, it is currently a buyer’s market and an airline or MRO that can work faster and smarter by using SkySelect will be able in most cases to find what they want at a good price, producing significant savings. That is particularly important as maintenance costs can range from 10-45% of total yearly operating expenses.

AVM: But if flying hours are down, is demand less?

EB: Flying hours will come back as the pandemic situation stabilizes around the world. According to Oliver Wyman, the USM demand alone is expected to grow at 68% per annum through 2022 and beyond, when the market is expected to reach $7.9 billion and over. In total, USM will represent 11% of aftermarket materials spending versus 9% in 2019. So, the signs are good.

The number of aircraft currently grounded and that have been in storage over the past year due to the pandemic is unprecedented. As vaccine distribution increases, travel restrictions are lifting, the world is inching its way toward “normal,” and people are ready to fly again. According to International Air Transport Association’s latest Airline Industry Financial Forecast, regions with large domestic markets – including the U.S., Latin America and Asia-Pacific – in particular have begun to see a resurgence in travel. As global demand for air travel continues to rise, airlines are now faced with a new challenge – getting parked aircraft ready to take to the sky.

When an aircraft is parked for an extended period, there is increased risk for deterioration of its components and structure if preservation procedures are not followed. Preservation procedures vary for traditional short-term storage vs. long-term storage. But regardless of the duration of parked status, it’s important to recognize that there are similar risks to the engines, hydraulic systems, fuel tanks and the airframe – namely water contamination and corrosion.

Engine lubricants in particular are susceptible to increased water contamination anytime an aircraft is parked for an extended period. Similarly, a major concern for fuel tanks is microbiological growth due to water contamination. As airline maintenance teams prepare their aircraft to return to service, there are some key steps to take.

It is essential that airlines follow the instructions included in aircraft OEM maintenance manuals and all relevant operational guidance. The considerations in this material are not intended to override OEM specific protocols.

Maintenance steps for the return to service

Returning an aircraft to service requires a multitude of steps, with lubrication and fuel quality being two key areas that could result in costly repairs if overlooked. There are several critical steps in returning the aircraft to service.

• Exercise the engines: Occasionally “exercising” engines while grounded by moving the aircraft can bring the oil to operating temperature, help evaporate any water, and renew the film of protective additives on the surfaces of engine components.

• Exercise the wheels: Moving the aircraft also rolls the tires, which renews the grease coating on the associated wheel bearing components and helps protect the bearings. This is important because wheel bearings are only re-greased when completely removed from the aircraft. Moving the airplane also flexes the landing gear which renews oil and grease films on landing gear struts and linkages.

• Test the oil: Technicians should periodically test the engine oil in parked aircraft for water (ppm) and monitor total acid number (TAN) and compare these to the oil condition limits set by the engine OEM. Be sure to work with a lab that specializes in aviation fluid analysis like Jet-Care and SGS, which use industry standard test methods, to get an accurate picture of your specific engine lubricant condition – and adjust maintenance practices accordingly. You can’t just assume you’re operating the engine enough and one airline’s approach may not work for another airline. In a limited number of cases, some engines with less than weekly engine runs in a high humidity, high heat environment did show excessive water and excessive TAN.

• Dewater the fuel tanks: All aircraft fuel tanks have drain points to drain water out of the tank. While drain frequency is based on OEM recommendations, more frequent drainage may be beneficial when an aircraft is parked. By draining regularly, maintenance teams can remove water that holds up in low points. When the aircraft is moved, water may also dislodge from spots that don’t drain as efficiently, and more draining may be necessary.

• Visually assess the fuel: Following any water draining, it is recommended that maintenance staff take a sample of the fuel in a clear container to visually assess the quality. Check for microbiological growth and particulate in the fuel, as well as the color. Depending on where an aircraft is stored, sand or dirt can find its way into the fuel tank. If particulate is present, it may be necessary to drain the fuel and clean the tank. In terms of color, jet fuel typically ranges from colorless to a light straw color. Anything darker than that may be cause for investigation.

• Clean the fuel tank – only if necessary: If there is particulate, or a buildup of microbiological growth due to inadequate drainage, it may be necessary to drain the fuel and physically clean the tanks. As there are significant cost and safety implications for this, it’s recommended that maintenance teams regularly drain the fuel tanks to avoid cleaning them.

As airlines prepare their planes to take flight again, it’s critical to test the engine oil and evaluate the water ppm and TAN, change the oil if needed, continue to exercise the engine, and drain and assess the fuel tanks.

Considerations for Long-Term Storage

While airlines worked to keep grounded aircraft parked only temporarily, some aircraft were put in long-term storage, or deep preservation. If an aircraft was put into long-term storage, exercising the aircraft is not an option.

Long-term storage requires preserving or “pickling” an engine, in which preservation additives are added to the lubricants to prevent corrosion. Once the long-term preservative additive is mixed in the lubricant, the engine operation is typically limited by the OEM as the preservative may interfere with other lubricant additives and create less load-carrying, or more deposits forming. For “pickled” engines, workload for return-to-service is very high. Lubricant should be drained, and engine flushed before return-to-service.

From a fuel perspective, many of the maintenance steps remain the same regardless of how long the aircraft has been parked. However, aviation fuel supply locations are required to re-test fuel that has aged for six months beyond its last certification. This same practice would also be beneficial for fuel stored in aircraft for that duration of time. Airlines should work with their supplier to understand the testing process and get clarity on any fuel quality concerns.

With these few additional steps, aircraft will be better prepared to take to the skies, and airlines can avoid costly repairs.

Widebody aircraft engines are the heavyweights of aerospace propulsion. As such, they require special care and attention to ensure their reliability and peak performance, making widebody engines expensive items to maintain and replace.

To get an inside look at the world of widebody engines and how owners can optimize their shop visits, Aviation Maintenance spoke with top MROs around the world. In this article, they talk about the challenges associated with maintaining these power plants and the ways in which owners can mitigate their servicing and replacement costs. Some of these MROs even provide advice on how to get the most out of widebody engine shop visits.

AAR

AAR maintains and services widebody jet engines in its MRO network performing engine inspections, LRU and line maintenance, repair and overhaul activities. The company is not in te core engine overhaul business as this is the market occupied by many of its customers. Instead, AAR contracts with its network of engine overhaul customer shops to provide complete solutions to this MRO’s commercial and defense clients.

“For widebody aircraft we have tailored repair and management solutions on the PW4000 /CF6 -80 (MD11/ B747/ B767) & RB211-535 (B757) engine variants,” said Carl Glover, AAR’s VP Sales & Marketing Americas.“ Under these solutions AAR repairs and overhauls the engine accessories in our component MRO network or those of our OEM channel partners. Our partner engine shops perform the engine maintenance with AAR as the USM (Used Serviceable Material) provider.”

AAR has recently diversified into the support and provision of engine modules for customers which are tailored to their specific build specs, reducing TAT (turn-around times) and EHM (engine heavy maintenance) costs. “When it comes to serving the owners of widebody aircraft, “there are some unique challenges in maintaining some of the widebody engines that are currently being operated,” Glover observed. “Recently there have been some key material shortages in the supply chain affecting component availability. This has impacted shop TAT and driven up demand for certain spare engine types for short term leasing support.”

To mitigate this situation that has been exacerbated by the global pandemic, AAR has been consulting its customers to forecast their future needs for specific widebody engine materials and parts. Doing so is helping the company anticipate and remedy possible shortages, using tactics such as pre-provisioning high repair TAT components in a ‘closed pool’ reserve.

Even with these preemptive measures, “issues remain in the component repair space on some key gas path components due to scrap rates and shop capacity considerations as the vendor community balances capacity to cover the ‘post covid recovery curve,” said Glover. “An additional challenge has been the freight charges for whole engine shipments, which have increased globally due to the demand for main deck freight in response to COVID-19 medical support activities and increased demands from e-commerce.”

To help manage the costs of widebody engine maintenance, AAR provides extensive material management and (SLB) sale leaseback solutions to their engine customers. They also offer large scale engine management programs directly to operators and lessors alike, in which AAR’s technical teams manage engine workscopes, material management and repair activities on their behalf.

As well, “we provide our customers whole engine and module exchanges to increase engine availability,” Glover said. “This has seen particular interest from our widebody freight clients who need operational capacity to support fleet demands. In these instances, AAR supplies them with a serviceable engine/modules while purchasing the unserviceable engine asset from the customer and having them repaired.”

“AAR has been focused on the recovery of the industry in support of our customers in our MRO facilities, component shops and engine business,” he concluded. “We work very close with our customers to ensure we have the capacity, inventory or a workable solution that they may need for engine maintenance and overhauls.”

AFI KLM E&M

AFI KLM E&M’s MRO facilities in Amsterdam-Schiphol, Paris-Charles de Gaulle and Paris-Orly overhaul a wide range of engines fitted on Air France’s and KLM’s aircraft, plus Airbus and Boeing aircraft owned by other carriers. “As an Airline-MRO, we believe our intimate knowledge of not only maintaining but also flying these aircraft and engines is the real difference maker in terms of our ability to closely match the maintenance program with the operational needs of the operator,” said Michael Grootenboer, AFI KLM E&M Senior Vice President of Group Engines Products.

Given this varied client base, AFI KLM E&M works on a range widebody engines. They include the GE90-94 and GE90-115 (Boeing 777) in Paris, with the Trent-XWB (Airbus A350) soon to be supported there as well. In Amsterdam, the company services the GEnx-1B (Boeing 787), the CF6-80E (Airbus A330) and the CF6-80C2 (various aircraft such as the 747.)

In addition, AFI KLM E&M’s global network allows the company to offer other services such as widebody engine parts repairs, teardowns and others. “As an example, with our joint venture in Miami with Bonus Tech, we provide teardown solutions for a wide range of engine types, including the PW4000, Grootenboer said. “Through Airfoils Advanced Solutions, our joint venture in Rosult, France we perform High Pressure Combuster airfoil repairs on engines such as the GE90. And both in our engine shop in Amsterdam and at our subsidiary CRMA in Elancourt (just outside Paris), we offer a wide range of parts repairs for our full engine range, including CF6, GEnx, GE90 and GP7200 on parts such as the combustor and the fan mid shaft.”

As with other widebody engine MROs, the pandemic confronted AFI KLM E&M with challenges such as supply chain shortages/delays and unpredictable customer demand. In particular, “the COVID-19 crisis required us to adapt our maintenance operations to the lower operating pace of our parent airlines and customers’ fleets,” said Grootenboer. “So we streamlined our production and accelerated improvement projects we had already launched on the shop floor, as well as customer solutions such as Smart Work Scoping and Remote Table Inspection. We were aided in this by the inherent flexibility of our organization and our highly skilled workforce.”

Now that COVID-19 is waning, AFI KLM E&M is managing the usual issues associated with widebody engine maintenance. “The more EGT-driven nature of widebody engine maintenance programs, when compared to the generally cycle-limit driven programs on narrow body engines, requires a different strategy in monitoring the operational engine and planning its maintenance,” Grootenboer noted. “Here we are greatly aided by our own Prognos for Engines predictive maintenance solution.”

“Furthermore, widebody engines are of course significantly more costly than narrow body engines, while its numbers operating worldwide are generally smaller,” he continued. “This results in a different trade-off when it comes to developing and/or industrializing repairs for the engine’s parts. Our in-house capability for the repair of, for example, combustors and fan mid shafts for GE90 and GEnx gives us a significant cost advantage, while making us less reliant on the (occasionally disrupted) supply chain. Equally importantly, repair and reuse of engine parts lowers not only the cost of ownership, but reduces the consumption of resources and energy for the manufacture of new parts and thereby contributes to the sustainability of the maintenance and operation of aircraft engines.”

The current economic climate has made it more difficult for widebody aircraft operators to pay for repairs and overhauls. In response to this reality, AFI KLM E&M offers a range of payment plans and of comprehensive maintenance solutions to fit the needs and budget of the operators. These apply to items such as providing or sourcing spares, leveraging the range of AFI KLM E&M’s material solutions (new, repaired and used serviceable parts) to optimize shop visit cost, offering smart workscoping to create a custom visit that fits the needs and budget of customers, and working with this MRO’s network of shops, subsidiaries, joint ventures and partners to find a solution that meets customer requirements. This may also include engine teardown services, engine parts trading, greentime solutions and other services.

Now that airlines are more bringing widebodies back into service, Michael Grootenboer has some words of wisdom when it comes to getting their engines ready for service. “With the end of the crisis progressively coming in sight, it is important to launch the dialogue between operator and maintenance provider, to make sure that the planning of upcoming shop visits is aligned and matches the need of the operator for the pick-up in traffic we are all so eagerly looking forward to,” he said. “As an Airline-MRO, we have a strong understanding of the operator’s constraints. Adaptiveness is in our DNA and we can adapt our workscopes and shop visit plans effectively and efficiently in order to save money for the operators and maximize the revenue generating potential of the customer’s fleet.”

GE Aviation Services

GE Aviation’s commercial engines portfolio includes the CF6, GEnx and GE90 widebody engines. Going forward, it will also include the GE9X engine, which was certified by the U.S. FAA in September 2020. The GE9X is currently part of Boeing’s flight test program for its 777X passenger aircraft.

To keep these engines humming, GE Aviation operates overhaul and component repair facilities globally. Widebody engine overhaul facilities are located in Kansas in the U.S., Brazil, Wales, Scotland and Malaysia. Component repair facilities are located in Ohio and Texas (U.S.), Hungary and Singapore. Additionally, GE Aviation has joint ventures and service agreements with partners around the world to overhaul and repair GE engines.

Issues caused by COVID-19 are front-of-mind for this company when asked about maintaining and overhauling widebody engines. “One of the biggest challenges during the pandemic was adapting to meet our customers’ needs virtually when traveling in-person wasn’t possible for engine maintenance training or to provide guidance to airline maintenance technicians on engine inspections,” said Aileen Barton, marketing director for GE Aviation Services. “Before COVID-19, aircraft and jet engine mechanics would travel to one of GE’s or its partners’ training centers for hands-on learning. Due to global travel and social distancing restrictions during the outbreak, more training is being delivered online to where customers are, namely on their laptops and mobile phones.”

This online maintenance training is being provided by GE Aviation’s Customer Technical Education Center (CTEC). As well, GE Aviation’s YouTube channel includes Maintenance Minute video demonstrations. According to Barton, maintenance customers interested in remote and online courses should contact their GE field service engineer or customer support manager.

“A further challenge is keeping global shop capacity and supply chain schedules aligned to meet customer demand throughout the pandemic, during what’s been an unprecedented downturn in the aviation industry,” said Barton. “GE Aviation is taking advantage of this downturn with a renewed focus on Lean principles to help us improve our processes for better customer delivery times, to improve first-time part yield for new and repaired material and to manage more work as the recovery comes.”

Depleted customer cash flow is yet another pandemic problem that is keeping GE Aviation busy. “Widebody engine operators are looking for solutions to preserve cash and maximize flexibility,” Barton noted. “GE Aviation is working with each customer individually to meet their needs.”

These consultations are being done under the umbrella of GE Aviation’s TrueChoice Services, which gives customers options for maintaining aircraft engines based on their specific (and sometimes unique) operating situations. “These options include TrueChoice Overhaul, as well as alternatives to overhauls,” she said. “Additionally, our open and competitive MRO philosophy provides customers more flexibility while still having access to OEM material, whether GE is servicing the engine or another MRO provider is.”

In the same vein, GE Aviation’s ‘TrueChoice Material’ solutions include new, used and repaired material for widebody engine owners. To provide a selection of lower-priced possibilities, GE Aviation buys in-service GE engines and aircraft with GE engines installed. “These acquisitions provide GE Aviation with an inventory of used serviceable engines and engine parts that are sold to customers and third-party MRO providers,” said Barton. “Meanwhile, Used Serviceable Material (USM) and repaired material can offer GE Aviation customers a way to lower their heavy overhaul costs compared to all-new engine parts, while still maintaining OEM quality standards.”

That’s not all. Widebody aircraft owners can also obtain replacement engines from GE Aviation on short-term operating leases that run up to two years. And because GE Aviation builds the engines it services, the company has the capability to custom assemble engines with a specific amount of remaining flight cycles on rotating life-limited parts and thrust levels. “Custom engine builds are reliable, cost-effective and support each customer’s unique operational needs,” Barton said.

Given the apparent ‘Return to Flight’ crunch that is facing many widebody operators as COVID-19 eases, Aileen Barton recommends contacting your widebody maintenance provider now to book appointments, rather than waiting until later and risking delays in receiving service. “Planning is key,” she advised. “Scheduling needed engine maintenance now while demand for air travel remains slower will prevent constraints across the aviation industry in coming years as flight departures grow back to 2019 traffic levels. Customers are encouraged to provide material orders and schedule shop visits earlier to be more prepared for the recovery.”

MTU Maintenance

Independent MRO MTU Maintenance services General Electric’s CF6-80C2 and GE90-110/115B widebody engines (with full disassembly, assembly and test capabilities) at its facilities in Hannover, Germany and Vancouver, Canada. The Hannover site handles both CF6-80C2 and GE90-110/115B engines, while the Vancouver facility focuses on CF6-80C2s exclusively. As well, as part of GE’s OEM network, MTU Maintenance maintains the turbine center frames (TCF) for the GEnx and the low-pressure turbine (LPT) of the GP7000. The company will be introducing TCF MRO capabilities for the GE9X engine in the near future.

According to Fabien Schoen, director of Programs for MTU Maintenance, there are a number of challenges associated with servicing widebody engines economically. “Generally speaking, these are cost-intensive engines for operators,” he said. “As such, MTU Maintenance offers a wide range of services designed to reduce MRO spend by the absolute maximum across the lifecycle.”

A case in point: For operators of newer widebody engines, the goal is generating more flight hours between maintenance cycles to keep costs down. MTU Maintenance achieves this using ‘intelligent fleet management’ to optimize removals across a defined period, rather than rigid hours-based schedules. “This approach is complemented by predictive maintenance, based on engine trend monitoring, on-site services and spare engine support,” said Schoen. “Once an engine comes into the shop, our customized workscoping, high-tech EASA-FAA approved repairs and our engineering expertise help lower overall costs. We call this program ‘PERFORMPlus’.”

Over time, engines age and the costs associated with servicing them increase. To mitigate this financial sting, MTU Maintenance provides ‘smart strategies for mature engines’. In this vein, “our fully independent solutions include ‘smart repairs’ and tailored workscopes to suit operators’ remaining flight periods as well as material salvation and intelligent teardowns,” Schoen said. “Furthermore, these services can be combined with alternatives to MRO such as leasing in of green-time engines or exchanging engines for the remaining period until phase-out. This service solution goes by the name ‘SAVEPlus’.” As well, MTU Maintenance supports a full range of maintenance contract types including Time and Material and Fly-by-Hour. Customers can also lease replacement engines through the company’s leasing arm MTU Maintenance Lease Services B.V. in Amsterdam, as needed.”

The pandemic affected this MRO as it did everyone else in the aviation industry. “Our CF6 MRO business remained strong throughout the pandemic, due in large part to the continued operations of cargo airlines,” said Schoen. “Generally speaking though for passenger aircraft, narrowbodies have been reactivated first in areas seeing some recovery in air travel. Widebodies have been slow to recover so far and we expect this trend to continue.”

In the context of the COVID-19 cash crunch, MTU Maintenance is predicting a continued trend away from traditional planning with fixed maintenance intervals to more individually-tailored solutions. “Some airlines are concentrating on short-term savings with cash preservation as the main objective, while others are focussing on long-term planning,” Schoen told Aviation Maintenance. “MRO providers must flexibly meet both these goals to provide the best solution for customers in today’s market.”

As for Fabian Schoen’s advice to widebody engine operators wanting to optimize shop visits in the current travel slowdown? He suggests that they discuss their fleet’s requirements with MTU Maintenance to get a maintenance and payment package that works best for them.

“With the tools and measures I have already described, we are able to generate individual and optimized solutions for the specific needs and challenges of our customers,” said Schoen. “We believe it may take a while for the widebody fleet to come back to the pre-covid utilization levels and we can offer tailor-made cost-efficient engine fleet management solutions (e.g., ‘eat-the-fleet’) to minimize cost during such unfortunate periods.”

StandardAero

StandardAero provides maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) services for a range of aircraft engines. In the widebody category, they service the Rolls-Royce RB211-535 engine (used in Boeing 757s) at StandardAero’s facility in San Antonio, TX, USA.

When it comes to getting engines in and out of the shop quickly, “material management is one of the critical factors in delivering responsive turn-around times (TATs) for major repair events,” said Max Allen, Vice President of Commercial Programs RB211 for StandardAero Airlines & Fleets division. “This includes timely new production parts delivery, comprehensive in-house component repair capabilities, and – where appropriate – the utilization of used serviceable material.”

If the parts aren’t available, it doesn’t matter how well trained the company’s technicians are or how advanced a facility’s MRO management software is. Delays will occur.

Achieving an efficient production line for engine repairs is also key to providing timely engine service. “If the line is not appropriately laid out, or not correctly sized, it can delay the overall MRO process, raising TAT times and costs,” Allen said. “Likewise, if an MRO is forced to ship engines to a distant test cell for testing, unnecessary delays can be introduced into the overall process.”

To ensure timely service, StandardAero’s RB211 production line in San Antonio – which is located in the former U.S. Air Force San Antonio Air Logistics Center – was purpose-built from scratch to meet the specific requirements of the RB211 powerplant. This includes having access to an on-site engine test complex with multiple high-thrust test cells to verify performance after repairs

Beyond disrupting the parts supply chain, COVID-19 has added its own twist to RB211-535 maintenance for StandardAero. “On the one hand, the trend of 757s being retired from passenger service has continued and, in the case of a number of operators, accelerated as part of cost reduction efforts in the wake of the pandemic,” said Allen. “On the other hand, the 757’s popularity in the cargo market has continued to grow, as confirmed by the large number of freighter conversions undertaken in 2020 (and the large number scheduled for 2021).”

The 757’s growing role as a freighter is offsetting its retirement from passenger service, and motivating StandardAero to ramp-up its RB211-535 throughput. (The company is in its fourth year as Rolls-Royce’s maintenance service partner on the product.) In fact, given the 757’s strength in the cargo market, StandardAero expects the RB211-535 to provide a steady stream of work for its San Antonio facility for decades to come.

When it comes to paying for RB211-535 repairs, StandardAero offers plans to support both ‘program’ and ‘time and material’ (T&M) customers.

“Program customers are those operators who are enrolled on Rolls-Royce’s TotalCare long-term service agreement,” said Allen. “StandardAero supports these customers as Rolls-Royce’s end-of-life engine maintenance service partner under a partnership signed in 2018.”

While program customers account for the majority of StandardAero’s RB211 throughput, the company does support T&M customers with the same full scope of MRO services. “The majority of our customers already have their own financing solutions in place, but StandardAero is able to assist with lining up third-party financing providers where necessary,” he said.

So, what steps should widebody aircraft operators be taking to get the most from their shop visits? “Probably the best advice that we always give is for operators to plan ahead as far as possible,” Allen replied. “Shop visit slots are booked up months (and, occasionally, years) ahead of schedule, and it is therefore not always possible to accommodate the demands of a customer with critical short-turnaround requirements, regardless of the workscope.”

“As the industry continues to recover after the pandemic, the demand for shop visits has only increased,” he added. “Over the past year a number of maintenance events were deferred for the sake of cost avoidance. Now these engines are starting to be sent for induction as activity resumes and airlines’ cash position improves. As such, engine slots are now in even greater demand, and it will therefore require operators to plan as far ahead as possible when reserving induction slots.”

Rising like a phoenix out of the ashes — or out of the dust of the dessert — parked aircraft are being returned to service as vaccinations begin working, the pandemic recedes, and the pace of travel steps up. Returning stored aircraft to service is a complex and painstaking process.

The apparent waning of COVID-19 is encouraging airlines to resume normal passenger schedules after a year of storing unused aircraft. Unfortunately, bringing these airliners back online isn’t as easy as starting up a parked car. There are many steps that have to be taken to achieve this safely and in line with Original Equipment Manufacturers’ (OEMs) guidelines.

In fact, returning stored aircraft to service is just the last phase in a process that began last year. That is when these airliners were grounded due to COVID-driven route suspensions, border closures, and overall declines in passenger traffic. They then had to be maintained while in storage, during which time issues related to long-term inactivity cropped up. Now that these aircraft are needed once again, further work has to be done ensure that they can resume flying safely and reliably.

To put all of this in context, Aviation Maintenance magazine spoke with OEMs, airlines, and MROs. Here’s what they told us.

Preparing for Storage

Even in normal times, preparing an aircraft for long-term storage requires a fair degree of time and effort. According to the MRO Avia Solutions Group, storing a single widebody aircraft like an Airbus A380 or Boeing 777 takes 4-6 employees working together for a 12-hour shift. The reason aircraft storage is so labor-intensive is due to how much has to done to anticipate and forestall damage from all kinds of hazards. According to Ed Sangricco, American Airlines’ managing director of Tech Ops – Tulsa, “some of the regular tasks for putting aircraft into storage include covering any openings to keeping wildlife and debris out, preserving engines, lubricating flight controls and landing gear, putting up window shades, and implementing ways to minimize moisture in the cabin and on the flight deck.” As well, in-flight entertainment screens and systems have to be covered, and potable water tanks and fuel tanks must be dosed with anti-growth agents for indefinite non-use.

Storing aircraft in regular circumstances can be challenging, but at least such storage can be methodically scheduled and resource-planned beforehand. “Long-term groundings, be it in flight-ready conditions or storage, are not unusual in our industry,” noted Claire Kauffmann, Airbus’ head of Scheduled Maintenance Services. “So the tasks that need to be performed during the grounding period and to safely return the aircraft in service are already well known and well documented.”

“What makes the Covid 19 groundings different is their scale, their unexpectedness and the suddenness – often within a few days,” Kauffmann explains. “This was the reason that Airbus offered more flexibility in maintenance recommendations without compromising on safety. We aimed to prevent all potential issues linked to parking and storage taking into account the parking conditions and locations.”

Boeing took the same proactive attitude to supporting airline clients during the unexpected COVID-19 rush to ground aircraft. “We partnered closely with operators to ensure safe and proper storage,” said Boeing spokesperson Rafael Gonzalez. “During this period, Boeing captured Best Practices and performed cross-model collaborations to ensure that the right procedures were applied across the Boeing fleet.”

This kind of support was appreciated by customers such as United Airlines, but more help was required during the ‘Pandemic Mass Grounding’. To make it happen, “United Technical Operations personnel worked with departments across the airline such as engineering, fleet planning, network operations, supply chain and more to help ensure our aircraft were stored in accordance with the manufacturers’ (Boeing, Airbus) specific storage instructions,” said a United spokesperson. “Our teams also evaluated the best storage locations with the majority of our aircraft stored where United has in-house maintenance facilities and appropriate staffing such as our Hubs.”

All of this activity occurred while MROs such as Avia Solutions Group subsidiary FL Technics were trying to maintain their regularly scheduled services to customers, albeit on a reduced scale due to COVID-19. “It was quite a challenge to find a balance between heavy maintenance checks that had been contracted throughout the season and the number of short notice storage or parking (available for immediate return to service) requests coming from our customers,” said Juozas Lapeika, the company’s deputy CEO and head of Base Maintenance. “Good preparation was of the utmost importance for smoothly supporting all of these requests at the same time. This is why Avia Solutions Group management dedicated one team of our staff to handle storage and parking requests for aircraft, the performance of periodic checks and eventually Return to Service tasks, which gave us required flexibility and swift reaction time.”

During the push to ground aircraft, Avia Solutions Group worked closely with airport authorities in Vilnius, Lithuania (where the company is headquartered) to expand the number of storage spaces available to its airline clients. “Even a drone was engaged to give us all a good aerial overview to check if the current stored/parked aircraft arrangement was efficient enough,” Lapeika said.

Maintaining Aircraft During Storage

Grounded aircraft are like farm animals: They need to be cared for on a regular basis to keep them in peak condition. This was particularly true during the Pandemic Mass Grounding, when the uncertainty as to how long these airliners would be stored plus the need to return them to service whenever possible was on top of everybody’s mind.

Again, it was only the vast scale of the Pandemic Mass Parking that was new to the aviation industry, not the storing of aircraft in itself. As such, “as per OEM requirements and accordingly provided Work Orders by responsible CAMO organizations, there is a number of periodic tasks that are mandatory to be performed whenever an aircraft is being parked/stored, based on 7 day, 14 day, 30 day, 60 day, 90 day, 180 day, and one year cycle checks,” said Avia’s Lapeika. “These tasks basically cover visual inspection of certain zones, as well as different components or systems functional tests. Despite the aircraft is parked/stored, it is not being left out and needs continuous maintenance support.”

To be precise, “American’s stored aircraft were kept in ready status, carefully worked on and inspected regularly, to ensure they were prepared to fly safely and reliably when they were once again needed for revenue service,” said American Airlines’ Sangricco. “Storage maintenance tasks include everything from running engines and rotating tires to inspecting baggage holds and coffee makers. Maintaining fuel system integrity and ensuring lubrication requirements are also important items maintained throughout the storage process.”

Under United Airlines’ maintenance plan for its stored aircraft, technicians performed scheduled checks and inspections regularly, with the goal of allowing these aircraft to return to service quickly when the opportunity arose. “This work required combination of United’s Tech Ops professionals as well as FAA-approved essential maintenance providers for assistance where necessary,” said the United Airlines spokesperson. “Technology also played an instrumental role in keeping maintenance on schedule to avoid any delays in getting an aircraft back in the air. So our teams used tools like iPads to electronically access critical information about the processes and procedures required to maintain a stored aircraft. In addition, we developed web-based solutions that illustrated the condition and status of every aircraft scheduled for, or currently in, an approved storage program.”

Issues That Arose During Storage

Even with the most conscientious ongoing maintenance, stored aircraft can experience issues when they sit on the ground for extended periods. This was certainly the case for the Pandemic Mass Parking.

According to Boeing spokesperson Rafael Gonzalez, the OEM saw a number of issues arise during this time, each of which it developed fixes for. For example, extended parking could result in corrosion occurring on vulnerable external areas of the aircraft. To address this, “Boeing provided guidance on increasing inspection and cleaning intervals, and has also approved the use of additional corrosion inhibiting compounds (CICs) for relief and mitigation,” he said.

Meanwhile, high humidity and extreme weather events damaged some Line Replaceable Units (LRUs) on the airlines’ stored aircraft. To keep this from happening again, Boeing provided aircraft maintainers with various humidity reduction methods to preserve LRUs such as APUs, batteries, and soft interiors. “We have also worked closely with our customers and MROs to ensure LRUs are maintained properly in extreme weather conditions – below freezing and over 110F — for each Boeing model,” said Gonzalez.

This concern about climate conditions was also cited by the United Airlines spokesperson. “One of the challenges our teams had to plan for was weather, especially in areas where humidity or inclement weather were more of a threat,” they said. “To overcome this challenge, our teams stayed in constant communication with departments across the world to identify alternative storage locations where aircraft could be quickly moved in the event of an impending major weather event.”

Sitting unused for extended periods of time can also cause Component Degradation in APUs, batteries, and Integrated Drive Generators (IDGs). Boeing addressed this by working closely with its suppliers to publish the latest preservation information provided with respect to these components in this OEM’s Maintenance Manuals.

“We communicate frequently to our customers and MROs via Multi-Operator Messages (MOMs), Fleet Team Digest (FTD) Articles and monthly presentations,” Gonzalez said. “Communicating with the fleet prior to making major changes in our maintenance requirements gives our operators ample time to prepare for additional maintenance, if required.”

Finally, there is another source of bugs that can damage aircraft during extend storage, and that source is, well, bugs.

“One of the most frequently heard-of problems during extended time on the ground is a possibility of various bugs finding their way through the pitot-static system covers and settling down inside them,” explained Lapeika. “As you may know the pitot-static system determines aircraft airspeed and altitude. To do this, air enters the pitot tube or static port through calibrated holes during flight, and blocking them would result in erroneous data. Fortunately, there are special procedures meant to overcome such risks, such as the Flushing of the Air Data System task, which are part of our aircraft Return to Service procedure.”

In the same vein, “typical prevention measures during include protection against birds nesting in the engines and keeping insects out of the cabin,” said the Airbus spokesperson. The takeaway: When aircraft sit on the ground for extended periods of time, they have to cope with everything that Nature and Physics can throw at them.

Preparing Aircraft to Return to Service

Returning stored aircraft to service is a complex and painstaking process. The fact that an aircraft has been conscientiously monitored and maintained during storage doesn’t mean that it is ‘good to go’. Any protective measures that were employed have to be reversed (right down to uncovering the in-flight entertainment system screens), and all systems must be checked and ‘run up’ on the ground to verify that the airliner is safe to fly.

“To return an aircraft to service all the necessary maintenance actions must be performed,” said Kauffmann. “To this end, Airbus has been advising its operators via webinars, All-Operator-Telex (AOTs) and other channels that this includes all scheduled maintenance, daily and weekly servicing when needed, and the restoration of any defects which may have arisen during the period of storage or parking.”

“Everything required to bring the aircraft back to operational standards and ensure safe use is essential,” emphasises Kauffmann. This includes calendar and mandatory items, Airworthiness Directives, AOT-specified tasks, shelf-life equipment, and any inspections that were/are due to be done. “Upon release into service, the aircraft must be fully airworthy in every respect,” they told Aviation Maintenance magazine. “In 2020 alone, Airbus held more than 100 technical webinars to support worldwide customers with detailed recommendations on this topic.”

One complicating factor is that ‘return to service’ has different meanings to different clients. “We can now identify three scenarios for passenger aircraft that are getting out of long-term storage,” explained Lapeika. “One scenario is regular return to service to the same operator’s fleet. The second is aircraft returning to service after delivery to new operators. And the third is aircraft returning to service and being sent for cargo conversion. Each of these scenarios comes with different volumes of works and requirements. However, Avia is happy to provide all the required support.”

To add to the challenge, “the request to return an aircraft to service might come on quite short notice, which is a challenge for our production team to combine it with ongoing heavy maintenance projects,” he said.

“However, Avia Solutions Group does understand the importance of quick reaction, which is directly connected with our customer’s business success. Therefore, we are always ready to take an ‘extra mile’ proactive approach and come up with out of the box solutions.”

Going the extra mile to restore aircraft to service expeditiously – which is happening now — has been an American Airlines’ priority since the Pandemic Mass Grounding began. “The upline work we’ve done with our Network Planning and other key Operations teams to orchestrate the aircraft returning to full service, ensured our aircraft were ready to fly at a moment’s notice and that we have the right number of aircraft to fly based on demand,” said Sangricco. “A lot of work went into storing aircraft, but the same goes for getting them back in the air and carrying customers.”

“It takes about 1,000 hours of reactivation work to prepare an aircraft ready for commercial service,” he added. “Any aircraft in long-term storage must also complete a satisfactory Maintenance Verification Flight to confirm the aircraft is ready to return to service.”

Over at United Airlines, “our teams are following the aircraft manufacturer’s prescribed guidance on returning an aircraft to service which includes operational and engine checks, deep cleaning, fluids check, and a full inspection,” the United Airlines spokesperson said. “Returning aircraft to service has been an enormous achievement that represents the incredible professionalism, attention to detail and commitment to safety of not just Tech Ops, but rather the entire operations teams at United.”

One can only hope that the return to service efforts now underway represent the final phase of the Pandemic Mass Grounding, and that passenger travel is on its way to full volume recovery in the days to come.

Unfortunately, some of the stored aircraft may never return to the skies, specifically older airliners that are less fuel-efficient than their younger counterparts and in need of extensive overhauls. In such cases, “the more cost-effective solution for the owner or an operator is to part out these aircraft for valuable components and scrap the remaining items along with the airframe,” said Lapeika.

This being said, the rest of these stored aircraft should return to service soon. They have remained flyable thanks to diligent monitoring and maintenance during the Pandemic Mass Grounding – plus keeping birds and bugs outside of the aircraft where they belong.

The three most important things on the aircraft for the people who sit in the back of a business jet are said to be the crew, the catering … and the connectivity.

In the COVID-19 era, one thing has become clear: the need for inflight connectivity is more important than ever before. Many business executives today are using their ‘office in the sky’ as a critical asset to manage the demands on their professional and personal lives while adhering to safety and social distancing requirements.

They are using the technology on board the aircraft to conduct virtual meetings during flights, manage their inbox, lead remote workforces, conduct video conference calls, and stay on top of breaking news. Many are also holding in-person meetings on board the aircraft while on the tarmac instead of driving to an office to help ensure personal health and safety.

All that combined highlights the increased importance connectivity plays for today’s business traveller who requires their connectivity provider to deliver ever greater bandwidth with faster speeds and more personal services.

Fewer Flights but Usage is Up

Dave Mellin is the director of communications for Gogo Business Aviation which has been at the forefront of the internet-on-aircraft phenomenon offering both Air to Ground (ATG) and satellite connectivity on the back of its cell tower backbone notes an important aspect: although business aviation traffic is still not at pre-pandemic levels, his business is seeing a double-digit increase in data consumption since the COVID pandemic hit.

“So even though flights are down, data usage is up — it’s a statement about how important connectivity has become,” says Mellin. “It’s one of the big reasons we just announced a new unlimited data and streaming plan — unique in business aviation because it comes with no caveats. For Gogo, data is data.”

Insatiable Demand

Chris Moore is president at Satcom Direct Business Aviation which provides onboard connectivity in addition to a complete flight system via its partnership with satellite partners including Inmarsat supporting JetConnex and SwiftBroadband services and IntelSat which operates the FlexExec Ku-band satellite network for which SD holds Master Distributorship status. He agrees with the near insatiable demand for high-speed connectivity.

“Connectivity and high-speed data have become leading priorities for owners and operators and the connectivity stakeholders are responding by significantly investing in more powerful, more accessible high-speed data for business jets,” he says. “Every year we are moving closer towards emulating on the ground functionality in the air, and that is what customers want and expect. All stakeholders in the supply chain are investing heavily to improve infrastructure, hardware, software, and flexibility of service.”

Moore notes that existing satellite constellations are being updated with the number of LEO, MEO and GEO services growing. This all combines to help deliver more bandwidth for more aircraft. Indeed, the costs associated with outfitting aircraft for high-speed data are gradually reducing as more competition enters the market, with the size of the equipment also reducing.

Meanwhile, Honeywell’s JetWave system connects to the Inmarsat Jet ConneX Ka-band satellite system through either a tail-mounted antenna on mid-size jets or with a fuselage-mounted antenna for large-size jets. John Peterson, vice president and general manager of Honeywell’s software and services business, reports that the business has witnessed a slowdown in the cabin connectivity and wifi installation in the business aviation market. Even so, there has remained a steady demand in the aftermarket as owners now judge connectivity capability an essential feature of the business aviation proposition. He says the fun social media channels of old have now developed dramatically to become important real-time business networking tools, constantly keeping executive teams informed and effectively managed. “When you consider a HNWI corporate executive is costing the business $10,000 an hour and the aircraft $100,000 an hour,” Peterson says, “the pressure on these executives to keep turning the data in order to keep people and businesses profitable is immense.”

He says the goal of businesses like Honeywell is to help operators keep the balance between cost, speed and the region so an aircraft owner/operator needs to decide to opt for satellite-only or have an additional air to ground ATG component. “These are all things that need to be sorted out, to balance all these scenarios and the algorithm becomes even more complex when you start to trade off within those technologies. It becomes a sophisticated choice for operators to get that balance right. Many are taking advantage of the aircraft being on the ground to book in their installation slots as they understand that the aircraft will only depreciate in value if their second-hand aircraft fails to upgrade,” says Peterson.

Taking Advantage of the Pandemic

Owners have indeed been taking advantage of the pandemic slowdown. As an aircraft repair station, Flying Colours is deemed an essential service by the authorities in the USA and Canada. This has enabled the business to continue operations throughout the pandemic and to support its customers around the world. Kevin Kliethermes, director of sales at Flying Colours, reports that although some customers have delayed work as those owning aircraft in Europe have been restricted on flying due to the changing travel restrictions, other customers have moved their maintenance schedules forward as regular flying was restricted so they used downtime to undertake maintenance work. “This work regularly includes satcom/connectivity upgrades as we always advise our customers to install systems that will remain current for years to come,” he says.

Connectivity providers have certainly not stopped innovating during the pandemic and are all planning to meet significant anticipated demand. James Person, Viasat’s head of sales and business development in its business and VVIP aviation division reports that just as the demand on the ground continues to increase for higher speeds, usually driven by higher resolution video formats such as 4K and 8K, his business expects that trend for internet data speed requirements to prevail for the foreseeable future.

What is Viasat doing from a technology perspective to prepare for the growing demand for higher speeds? One major area of focus is its advanced satellite technology. With each generation of Viasat satellites, it adds typically an order of magnitude – that is, at least 10x – the amount of capacity per satellite.

“As an example,” Person says, “our first-generation Ka-band satellites that Viasat operates, such as WildBlue-1, have in the order of 10 Gbps (gigabit per second) of total throughput capacity. Our European Ka-band satellite, KA-SAT, has nearly 100 Gbps. ViaSat-2, which launched in 2017 has over 250 Gbps, and each ViaSat-3 satellite, which start launching in 2022, have over 1000 Gbps or a terabit per second each of capacity. And because it’s a Viasat designed shipset, it makes its hardware forward-compatible, so a Viasat Ka-band shipset installed today will be able to take advantage of advances in its ViaSat-3 constellation when it begins launching next year.

This incredible increase in satellite capacity – and in the smarts of the satellite to adjust that capacity to when and where it is needed – will be critical to keep up with that never-ending demand for higher speeds.

Satcom Direct’s Chris Moore believes that as the digitization of business aviation continues, his business will focus on designing and delivering satellite connectivity services built specifically for the needs of the business aviation sector.

“Our SD Plane Simple antenna systems are leading the charge in terms of providing more high-speed data to more aircraft around the world at more affordable rates,” he says. The Plane Simple antenna system series is the first network-integrated terminal designed exclusively for business aviation and aims to bring reliable connectivity to a much broader range of aircraft than ever before. Moore says the simple 2LRU system (the antenna and a single modem) simplifies retrofit installation and so reduces costs, reduces footprint, and provides a seamless transition path to future technology through its agnostic design to keep up with future technology.

He adds that this simplified system results in more reliable faster connectivity, in smaller formats, at competitive price points, all of which is attractive to existing and new customers. Low-cost installation reduces the burden of adding high-speed connectivity and the modular design enables minimally invasive upgrades. The system can also be located in the unpressurised area of the fuselage so freeing up valuable baggage compartment space.

The first Plane Simple Ku-band tail mounted antenna will support Intelsat’s Ku-band FlexExec satellite service and is anticipated to enter into service this year and will launch with flexible service plans aimed to align with how flight departments manage budgets.

As part of the SD eco-system of hardware, software, ground infrastructure and customer support, Moore says the addition of the Plane Simple antennas positions SD as a single source for all business aviation connectivity needs which streamlines the ownership and aircraft maintenance/management experience. “We are excited about the possibilities this brings for owners and operators seeking reliable, cost effective and easy to install high speed data systems,” he says, adding that a second Ka-band tail mounted antenna variant will come to market towards the end of 2022.

On Track for 5G

Gogo’s Dave Mellin meanwhile says his business believes the future of hi speed data is 5G — at least for the foreseeable future. “That’s why we’re building Gogo 5G. Data consumption has increased by 38% year over year on the ground, and the same applies to inflight connectivity, so the need for faster speeds and vastly increased capacity will be necessary, and Gogo 5G will be able to accommodate that increased demand long term.”

He says the business will launch Gogo 5G in 2022 and that the business remains on track for that. “We’ve crossed some significant milestones with testing the 5G belly mounted antennas and we’ve completed our first end-to-end call using the Gogo 5G SIM card so we are feeling optimistic about the progress we’re making. There is a worldwide semiconductor chip shortage, and that has impacted our 5G plans, but that is out of our control and everything else that is in our control, we are executing according to plan.”

When launched Gogo’s ATG system only became operational once the aircraft went above 10,000 ft due to an original design decision based on the Federal Aviation Administration ban on using personal electronic devices below that level. Since that regulation was relaxed, Gogo can now connect at 3,000 ft thanks to its AVANCE software. “What is significant about that,” Mellin says, “is that we were able to make that happen with a software push done over the air. No one had to board the aircraft or have any physical interaction on the aircraft. No down time to implement that change — that’s a massive increase in efficiency and saves operators thousands every time we push new software.”

That lower service altitude is significant for business travellers because it can provide up to 20 minutes additional connectivity time during normal flights and it makes connectivity more feasible for smaller aircraft such as turboprops that fly short hops or at low altitudes for most of the flight.

Mellin reports that one of the biggest benefits with the lower service level has been with the turboprops and some of the aircraft that fly in congested airspace. “One of our customers told us that when he flies into Teterboro — the airport just outside New York City ­— every time they have him drop below 10,000 feet way early, often for periods of 30 minutes or longer before landing, to avoid all the commercial aircraft flying into Newark, JFK or LaGuardia. Whenever that happened, he’d lose connectivity, but now he has that much more time to continue working.”

Future Trends

Viasat’s James Person sees an acceleration of interest and requirements for high-speed connectivity in smaller business and private aircraft. “In the past, perhaps due to limitations on SWaP (size, weight and power) as well as cost of equipment or service, satellite-based high-speed connectivity was an option for large cabin and long-range aircraft only,” he says. “Now with smaller shipsets, such as Viasat’s Ka-band or Ku-band 3-LRU shipsets, super-mid cabin aircraft can now have the same connectivity experience.”

ViaSat is seeing great demand in this category, including among the Embraer Praetor, Bombardier Challenger 300 series, and Gulfstream G280 for the same 20+ Mbps that it had already been delivering to large cabin aircraft. He says COVID flying restrictions served to accelerate this trend as travellers couldn’t fly to other countries/continents and with the increased usage of domestic fractional or charter aircraft usage, demand for internet service aboard increased.

Video Usage Soars

A second trend that continues is the increase in the amount of video that is consumed aboard business and private aircraft. As cellular plans and networks on the ground moved to enable streaming film, sports, and other content, those same mobile users kept their expectations high when going airborne. Again, a COVID trend of video conference calling accelerated this trend of the expectation for video calls while in flight. As a consequence, Viasat lifted the lid on its Ka-band speeds that enabled more users to stream simultaneously on business aircraft and added a new 200 GB monthly plan as well as including its Unlimited Streaming option in its top plans to support this trend of greater video consumption.

Satcom Direct’s Chris Moore commenting on the likely direction that satcoms are headed says the role of connectivity is evolving as it has become more than just a means of staying connected, it has developed into a data management system and he anticipates this will continue to evolve. “Communications is now a given,” he says, “but the optimisation of the data adds value to all parts of the flight operations.” In addition, he notes, the data generated supports capturing a digital history of the aircraft performance from the day the systems are installed. This helps retain asset value through the collection of accurate, validated, real-time data for existing and future owners and helps protect owner investment.

Open Architecture

The SD connectivity eco-system has been developed using open architecture approach which means that customers can plug-in third-party tools that support maintenance tracking, fueling, or flight planning. Data generated by the aircraft platform is shared by the SD eco-system with for example maintenance tracking software or engine manufacturers to support development and pro-actively engage in predictive maintenance management. This all helps reduce the downtime of an aircraft/fleet.

Advancing satcom technology is increasingly being seen as improving the passenger experience, supporting more efficient fleet management, and improving safety which enhances the overall ownership experience. Connectivity is no longer just about communications and transmitting data, it is about collecting aggregating, validating, and delivering data to an extended network of stakeholders via a secure and safe network to improve the aircraft management experience.

Honeywell’s Peterson is in complete agreement: “We at Honeywell constantly feel that pressure to perform and keep everything improving and once the people sitting in the back of the aircraft are satisfied, it then becomes more of a matter of getting the whole aircraft connected. And when we talk about connecting the whole of the aircraft, operators are searching for economies of scale, the exact same sort that scheduled commercial aviation enjoys.

“Honeywell has gone through a whole digitization of the air transport industry and has built a huge ground network with TBs of information being processed every month. We are now bringing that to the business aviation community but to make it work, you have to have a connected aircraft which can communicate key pieces of operational data so that everyone responsible for delivering that aircraft mission is sharing the same information and working in collaboration to provide a seamless service similar to that which supports the commercial air transport.”

“The fact is that in business aviation often, no one is expecting you and there is little infrastructure so Honeywell has created the Forge Community data platform bringing together a whole raft of expert airport related services so support the business aviation owner and operator — it is in this way that business aviation community can start enjoying those economies of scale.”

Peterson adds that Honeywell plans to take this to the next level and will for example be able to support the early arrival from feeding Top of Descent messages with Honeywell acting as the ISP to guarantee high levels of reliability through leveraging its scalable software. “We can stitch together the whole business jet user/operator community,” says Peterson.

The Forge Community will bring supplier services together in one place, allowing the operator to pick and choose. “It is very traditional in its thinking but very advanced in the technology behind it and Honeywell is bringing it all together so operations look seamless, flawless. We also want to bring a lot more scale into it in the future. Our mission is getting the whole aircraft connecting, something that is invisible to the passenger.”

High-Speed for All

Flying Colours’ Kevin Kliethermes also discerns more choice emerging in providers. “For many owners high-speed connectivity is now one of the most important elements of the passenger experience and that demand for more data, more quickly around the globe is something we are finding small to mid-size aircraft owners are also requesting. High speed data was once just a feature available to the large cabin aircraft, not anymore.

“The demand is stimulated by a consistent introduction of more robust systems that are beginning to come to market. Until recently customers could choose from just one or two providers and the size of the aircraft and where it was operating would potentially limit the possibilities, as well as budget costs. Now the situation is changing as high-speed data is being made viable for super and mid-size aircraft. Just recently we installed the Honeywell JetWave Ka-band system onto a Bombardier Challenger 604 which is the first time we have had to fulfill this request. It has always been the preferred choice of the large jets, but we expect to see more requests for high-speed services on these types of aircraft.”

Parking an airplane for an extended period of time – like most airlines have done during the COVID-19 Pandemic — introduces uncertainty and risk, especially if the maintenance performed prior to storage and later during return to service (RTS) is not properly executed. The actions taken by each person involved in these maintenance events are critical to ensuring the airworthiness of the airplane. A recent example of this was evident in an FAA emergency airworthiness directive issued last July for inspections of older Boeing 737 aircraft after four engine failures occurred due to a stuck bleed air check valve from corrosion. These airplanes were all parked due to the recent pandemic prior to RTS.

However, these same issues have been well-documented in other accidents and incidents long before COVID-19. Case-in-point: Dynamic Airways flight 405 on October 28, 2015.

The weather in Washington DC was unseasonably warm that day. As I ate lunch outside with some of my colleagues in the FAA Accident Investigation Division, a call came in from the Communication Center. The left wing of an airliner was engulfed in flames on the taxiway at the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport (Graphic 1). One person ran behind the still-operating right engine and was blown to the ground, receiving serious injuries. Even though many passengers insanely held onto their carry-on bags as they slowly evacuated a burning airplane, no one was killed. Passengers were streaming down emergency exit slides and spilling onto the tarmac. A relaxing lunch with my co-workers would have to wait for another day.

Immediate Indications of a Problem

It was known early on from media and airport sources that flight 405 –– a Boeing 767-200ER powered by two Pratt & Whitney JT7D-7 engines –– had experienced a massive fuel leak near its left engine about four minutes after it pushed back from Gate E9. The crew was in contact with an FAA air traffic controller (ATC) ground controller at the time of the event, thus triggering an internal FAA “services rendered telecon” — or “SRT” — about an hour after the notification of the accident. Hosting an SRT was standard FAA procedure for high-visibility events so that key ATC managers –– and investigators in our division –– could get briefed on the event and have the opportunity to listen to the raw ATC voice recordings.

The ATC playback in this case revealed that the wide-body jet was taxiing for takeoff for a scheduled charter flight to Caracas, Venezuela when another airplane — taxiing behind flight 405 — radioed that something was wrong: “Hey…out of the left engine. Looks like its leaking…I don’t know if its fuel or what.” The FAA ground controller responded with: “Okay. Dynamic four zero five heavy, did you copy?” The 767 crew replied: “Yes sir, we copy,” and then requested to return to the ramp. Shortly after the controller cleared the leaking jet to return, another voice from an undetermined origin shrieked over the frequency. “Engine’s on fire! Engine’s on fire!”

After the SRT concluded, I learned that the NTSB was launching a small “go-team” of five investigators from its headquarters offices located just across the street from my office. The team consisted of the investigator-in-charge and four NTSB “Group Chairmen” –– specialists in systems, powerplants, maintenance records, and survival factors. The NTSB also invited investigators and experts from Pratt & Whitney, Boeing, and Dynamic Airways to assist.

By statute, the FAA did not need an invitation. In its wisdom, Congress granted the FAA the right to participate in all NTSB aviation investigations because FAA regulates the industry, while the NTSB leads independent investigations and only makes recommendations. I launched Eric West –– our most senior air safety investigator –– to be the FAA coordinator for all agency support to the NTSB. Eric was a former charter pilot from Boston who was also a certified mechanic with inspection authorization. He had been an FAA inspector and accident investigator for two decades. Eric was assisted by FAA specialists for each of the NTSB’s four specialty groups who arrived at Ft. Lauderdale from various FAA offices across the country.

Examining the Wreckage for Clues

When Eric and the other investigators arrived at the scene later that day, their cursory look inside the left engine revealed no evidence of an uncontained engine failure or internal damage. Instead, it was clear that a significant fuel leak and subsequent fire occurred in the left engine strut and nacelle during taxi. The lower inboard portions of the left wing, left engine cowling, and left fuselage center section were badly burned (see Graphic 2). A puddle of fuel with tire tracks from the airplane provided more clues (Graphic 3). Fortunately, the captain cut-off the fuel when the fire began to rage, and it was quickly extinguished by airport firefighters before the flames and smoke were able to penetrate the cabin. Given the passengers’ propensity to remain on the burning airplane as they grasped for their backpacks, purses, and other items, Eric was convinced the local authorities would have required a lot of body bags if the cabin would have been compromised with smoke and flames.

During a closer examination of the left engine and strut the following day, investigators noted that a fuel coupling assembly — known as a “Wiggins coupling” — was found separated. Indications of fuel leakage were observed at the flange interface of the fuel supply lines where the coupling had separated, including discoloration from fluid pooling in the strut compartments and streaking down the left engine cowling (see Graphic 4).

What investigators found next was disturbing. No safety lockwire was present on either the body or the nut side of the fuel coupling as required in the Boeing aircraft maintenance manual (AMM), and no broken lockwire was recovered in the surrounding strut compartments. (See Graphics 5 & 6).

The affected coupling was downstream of the front spar Wiggins fitting which was located in the upper flammable fluid leak zone of the aft upper strut area (graphic 7). The outer couplings (parts 117 & 113 denoted by arrows in graphic 7) are designed to be threaded together, and then lock-wired to prevent the coupling from loosening under vibration.

Eric called back to the office to inform me that Dynamic Airways issued a Fleet Campaign Directive after the Wiggins coupling discovery to inspect the remainder of their aircraft to ensure proper installation of the fuel line coupling assemblies. No other instances of improper installation were found.

Determining How the Airplane “Lived”

Like performing an autopsy of a deceased person, investigators must determine how an airplane “lived” before it “died” in an accident. In this case, the NTSB maintenance records group pored over thousands of aircraft records. The accident airplane was “born” at Boeing in 1986 — nearly 20 years before the accident. The original owner of the 767 was Kuwait Airlines, but it was then purchased and operated by several more airlines, domestically and internationally, until 2006. At that point, a leasing company purchased the airplane and leased it out. Six years later, the leading company sent the airplane to a maintenance facility in Michigan in August 2012 to have a “4C” Check accomplished. Each C-check must be accomplished at intervals of 18 months, 6,000 hours or 3,000 cycles. It was during this 4C check when the Wiggins coupling would have been addressed. Following the 4C check, the airplane was flown to Goodyear, Arizona on November 12, 2012 to be stored.

Three long years later, on April 15, 2015, the leasing company ferried the airplane back to the same Michigan maintenance shop for a “6C” check and other work in preparation for lease to Dynamic Airways. One of the required maintenance tasks during this time involved a visual inspection of the fuel feed line components, including the Wiggins coupling. The Boeing AMM called for a “Zonal Inspection (General Visual)” of the area at each C-check maintenance interval. Following this maintenance, the airline took possession of the 767 on June 25, 2015, the FAA accomplished a conformity inspection on August 29, 2015, and the airplane was returned to service on September 15, 2015 – six weeks prior to the accident in Ft. Lauderdale.

The NTSB interviewed the mechanics who worked on the airplane during the 2012 and 2015 maintenance periods. All of them seemed qualified and experienced, and none of them recalled specifically working on the accident airplane. Regardless, both personnel who were involved in these two maintenance checks should have caught the missing lockwire.

The Probable Cause and Lessons Learned

The NTSB final report on the accident was released last summer in the midst of the COVID pandemic. The report concluded that the probable cause was the separation of the fuel line Wiggins coupling and subsequent fuel leak “… due to the failure of maintenance personnel to install the required safety lockwire.” In the analysis section of the report, the NTSB said that the missing safety wire “… was the result of an error by the third-party maintenance provider”. The agency also criticized the flight crew for initiating the emergency evacuation while the right engine was still running, and the passengers who decided to evacuate from a flaming airplane only after grabbing their carry-on bags.

The lessons learned from the flight 405 fire are obvious. Operator experience shows that dispatch reliability is higher and maintenance problems are fewer for airplanes flying in regular service as compared to airplanes used sporadically. When the airplane is in service, flight crews monitor airplane systems from the cockpit, and maintenance personnel perform preventative maintenance, regular inspections and repair procedures. When an airplane is parked, maintenance tasks can be missed, the environment can cause problems, and complacency can set it.

Last June, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) published “Guidance for Managing Aircraft Airworthiness for Operations During and Post Pandemic” that provides helpful information for airlines and maintenance facilities with regard to properly returning a stored airplane to service. A few months later, in November 2020, the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) published “Return to service of aircraft after storage: Guidelines in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic” in November 2020.

An unprecedented number of aircraft have been parked due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Gradually, as travel restrictions are lifted and as operators prepare to resume passenger flights, these aircraft will need to be returned to service. Due to the high number of aircraft affected by the pandemic, and with limited maintenance resources available to perform the work because of it, organizations should expect to experience difficulties and increased risks. The actions taken by each person involved in returning the airplanes to service are critical to ensuring the airworthiness of the airplane.

What has EmpowerMX learned during the pandemic?

Our customers are facing some daunting challenges. First, it’s no secret that even prior to the pandemic it was getting increasingly challenging to find enough qualified aircraft maintenance technicians. The staffing reductions that ensued during the downturn gave MROs and airlines a bit of a breather, but the combination of early retirements and layoffs drove a good number of these people to find work in other verticals, or even leave aviation entirely. It is clear now once again that the increasing demand for services are highlighting the dearth of experienced labor necessary to support it. In response, there is an unprecedented level of focus on improving processes and driving efficiencies, and technologies and solutions such as ours can play a critical role in driving those efficiencies.

Next, as carriers began to park the older and less efficient aircraft, they are now being stripped for usable parts, leading to a glut in the market, and MROs have to deal with an entirely new dimension in parts procurement and the supply chain.

And finally, the pandemic has highlighted to many aviation centric companies not only the need for efficiency, but the need for agility, and I think that as they rebuild themselves, this need for increased agility is being kept top of mind.

What challenged your company the most during this unusual time and how did you meet that challenge?

Initially, like many aviation businesses, our initial efforts were focused on supporting our customers and their unique responses to the pandemic, and figuring out how we can exit the crisis better and stronger, and more importantly making sure we have the solutions our customers will inevitably need. By far, the 2nd and 3rd quarters of 2020 was the most challenging period – but as many businesses did, we took advantage in the necessary shift in priorities, and focused all of our energy into product development and enhancement. This investment paid off, and by the end of 2020, we were well positioned to address the resurgence. We began actively reengaging with prospects around the world, and found a receptive audience for our existing solutions, as well as new offerings that are aligned with the market’s increasing focus on digital MRO and initiatives like Electronic Task Cards.

Have you been able to add customers during the pandemic?

We’re humbled by the fact that our customers are the world’s leading airlines and MROs, and we consider each of these organizations as a partner, not just a customer. Accordingly, when the pandemic brought the airline industry nearly to its knees, we focused the majority of our efforts towards helping our customers navigate through the crisis by understanding what they’ll need from us when the recovery begins. As the business environment has started to improve, these customers have not only started to ramp back to pre-pandemic levels (and in some cases above), but they’ve embraced our new solutions and continued to serve as excellent and loyal references for other prospects that are starting to emerge. As a result, we’ve had a very busy first half of 2021 supporting our existing customers increasing usage and newly developed solutions, along with new customers who are adopting our Digital MRO solutions. Today, I know of no other cloud native, mobility first, fully integrated yet modular suite that can help transform any traditional MRO business into a fully digital operation.

How is EmpowerMX responding to its customers’ changing needs?

We have always embraced the concept of “adaptive transformation” in our product design and development, where we build our solutions using a modular concept but with highly integrated components. Customers today find this approach incredibly useful, as they want to test new technologies rapidly and incrementally, without having to rip out and replace legacy systems. We don’t expect customers to transform overnight, and as they adapt to new regulations, consumer expectations, and market conditions, they require new tools that evolve with their needs and are flexible enough to meet their demands and the demands of their business.

What are your goals for the company? Our primary goals are customer focused – to dramatically improve their ROI and bottom line by reducing maintenance costs by 15% to 25% and improving safety, operational, and compliance KPIs. Our vision is to create a next gen “Digital MRO” which doesn’t merely take paper off the shop floor – rather, we want to bring the MRO, their customers and vendors together into a fully integrated, digitally connected service operation with an open data network to create transparency and visibility for all using blockchain and our unique predictive maintenance and forecasting technologies.

What sets EmpowerMX’s offerings apart from others in the market?

We have been in this industry for over two decades now. And were one of, if not the first-to-market with a cloud-based MRO software-as-a-service (SaaS) solution in 2013, while other providers were thinking about the how and why of doing so. EmpowerMX is truly the only cloud-based software platform on the market that can enable a digital MRO today. Our machine learning algorithms, built into the core of our product, powers and administers our digital task card generation, electronic signatures, task applicability and labor hour tracking. Our upcoming new predictive maintenance module integrated into all aspects of product usage is best of breed. We can bring an operator online within 60 days after commencing implementation, and our solution pays for itself within six months. EmpowerMX is truly an ROI driven offering, not just a nice to have.

Give an example of a problem your product solved for a customer.

This is a great question, and when we pause to think about one single problem we solved, we think it is impacting MRO throughput and the resulting financial performance. And that isn’t an isolated problem—it is a series of small successes that waterfall into this massive outcome called throughput, and that too, where quality and safety are non-negotiable. It is about creating a clean process flow from within the aircraft maintenance environment—starting with pre-induction and permeating through final delivery and data analytics support. Heavy maintenance visits typically create thousands of task cards, each with their own independent process needs—from material to labor and tooling just to name a few; Where EmpowerMX becomes the go-to solution is how easily our modules can support all these functions, and clients can choose modules on-the-go, without long upgrade projects.

Please give examples of how EmpowerMX’s products have helped save airlines, MROs or the military money.

We help save money even while one of our modules are being implemented. By way of the many small wins within the process, EmpowerMX has a history of achieving large gains, resulting in airlines and MROs saving time and money. One example is a large regional MRO based in the US. Before implementing EmpowerMX at this facility, the MRO was not profitable. By the time implementation was complete and the processes were standardized throughout the facility, the MRO had a consistent, realized profit margin increase of 10% a year. This was the result, primarily, of On-Time or Early deliveries. Prior to implementation, On-Time delivery based on contracts was consistently below 50%, and sometimes as low as 30%. By the end of the implementation, On-Time delivery was consistently above 95%. In 2017, the facility delivered 367 maintenance events. Only 2 of those maintenance events were late. Not only that, but they were also delivering early. Over 100 days a year were captured that year for additional throughput by early delivery days alone. When you can do more with what you already have, the results become apparent. In this example, there was over a 10% EBIT improvement as well as a substantial increase in revenue. The combination of increased revenue generation as well the major margin improvements lead to a dramatic increase in the bottom line.

How does EmpowerMX help with data analytics/predictive maintenance?

EmpowerMX provides data analytics and predictive maintenance support through a couple of key methods.

Our product promotes standardization without hindering the end users, through task standards and templates. These tools ensure that data is standardized as users are incentivized to provide the right data, or conversely unable to provide incorrect data. This results in standardized inputs and outputs that makes the task of data analytics and predictive patterning much easier for an organization.

The second is data support. EmpowerMX helps with this process by making simple and customizable reports available to product users. By providing access to almost any data point that an organization would need that is standardized through process incentives allows users to estimate maintenance visits more accurately to any relevant need such as: labor by skill, by task type, by billing code, materials demand probability, high risk tasks, task constraints, and more. When you know you have the labor, tooling, and materials required, you are already one step ahead of the competition.

What insights can you share about protecting data and information with regards to cybersecurity/hacking, which is a growing concern in any business sector?

Cyber security and data protection is the number one issue for all of us and our customers using the EmpowerMX cloud. Any cloud organization should first adopt ISO 27001 on information security management along with ISO 27032 offering guidance on cyber security management. It’s important to follow these standards at a minimum and or eventually certify to these standards to mitigate the risk. EmpowerMX not only stays compliant with these standards but also encrypt all our data, secure all our servers behind firewalls, separate our network infrastructure components under different VPN networks, enable dual factor authentication to access our cloud infrastructure, and deploy in-built AI tools for cloud security analysis and auto patching. This is where we are years ahead of other MRO software providers in the cloud.

The supply chain is desperately outdated across the board in both the civilian and military sectors of aviation. Does EmpowerMX have products that can help improve the supply chain?

The pandemic exposed just how vulnerable airline and defense (A&D) supply chains are. Inefficiencies in the Supply Chain causes return to service delays, schedule disruptions, fines, and dissatisfaction with the aircraft operators. This is further exasperated by legacy systems that can’t adapt and scale, bogging down the A&D Supply chain. While the aviation asset repair complexity is on a much different scale, the majority of the systems supporting the MRO industry are built for a traditional desktop model repurposed to work on tablets but are incapable of automating the process across a wide range of participants. EmpowerMX has several solutions exclusively available in the cloud to help solve this problem. For example, EMX Connect is an advanced system that is capable of wiring any legacy system to provide a seamless flow of data to automate the supply chain. This also fulfills the need for predictive analysis and always-aware systems that can minimize delays during the repair process. The EmpowerMX MRO suite—Connect, Shops, and Materials modules will bring airline MRO operators and suppliers closer than they have ever been before, digitizing the entire network of participants, and thus enabling the seamless exchange of data.

Dinakara Nagalla is the founder and CEO of EmpowerMX, the Frisco, Texas based Digital MRO Platform, offering a modular, cloud-based, mobile-first suite of applications for touch-free, data-enabled heavy maintenance, shop floor, and supply chain.

To say that COVID-19 has been bad for the global airline business would be a serious understatement. According to an October 2020 ICAO presentation, the pandemic’s full year (January-December 2020) impact will slash gross passenger operating revenues by up to $96 billion worldwide, and reduce the overall number of seats offered by airlines up to 47 percent.

“The pandemic has put a huge financial strain on owners and operators, and they are doing what they can to reduce spending,” says Emily Romblad, customer marketing manager with Celeste Industries Corporation. This includes parking aircraft wherever they can. “Literally every carrier in the world has taken the majority of their fleet out of service for an undetermined period of time,” says Chuck Pottier, president of Zip-Chem Products.

Corrosion Doesn’t Spare Parked Aircraft

Parking aircraft to save money is a risky proposition. This because that airframes and their engines are highly complex pieces of technology that need to be regularly maintained, whether they are in daily service or indefinitely parked. In other words, aircraft are not cars. An airliner cannot be left unattended for weeks on the ground and then reentered into service as if no time has elapsed.

This is an inconvenient truth that some airlines are doing their best to ignore. They are so understandably desperate to staunch the financial bleeding that they are grounding aircraft first and leaving any subsequent maintenance issues for a later date, hopefully when COVID-19 has eased and air traffic is on the rise.

Unfortunately, this ‘park them where you can’ approach increases the likelihood of corrosion in airframes and engines alike. This is because “aircraft were being parked wherever they could find room in what might be less than ideal environments which could be hot and humid,” says Jon Jacobson, Av-DEC’s commercial technical sales team manager. ‘Hot and humid’ translates into environmental conditions that speed up corrosion on metal and other aircraft materials.

Fortunately, “since the beginning of the pandemic many operators have repositioned planes to more favorable dry environments,” says a Boeing spokesperson. “This has also improved resource and material availability for cleaning procedures and application of protective coatings.”

This says, aircraft still deteriorate over time in dry storage conditions. They just do so at a slower rate, especially if the cash-strapped airlines that parked them fail to do required maintenance. For instance, “some operators are opting to go longer between cleaning tasks or eliminating the task altogether,” says Romblad. “However, soils that build up on the exterior can actually accelerate corrosion, so it’s important to routinely clean to prevent the buildup of corrosion causing contaminants.”

In fact, the long-term parking of aircraft has no negative influence on their exterior paint, says aviation coatings firm Mankiewicz. “UV radiation, humidity and temperature differences are much lower on the ground and therefore cannot harm the protective outer layer,” according to information that the company provided to Aviation Maintenance magazine. “Resulting dirt can simply be washed off and in the worst case the outermost layer, the clear coat, can even be polished.”

Engines At Risk During Parking

Aircraft engines are particularly vulnerable to corrosion when parked for extended periods of time, as is the case for many aircraft during COVID-19. “This new form of ‘medium-term’ parking presents risks,” says Ed Barnes, ExxonMobil’s global chief engineer for Aviation Lubricants. The reason: “Aviation turbine lubricants in commercial aircraft are overwhelmingly ester-based synthetic lubricants,” Barnes says. “These products have a natural affinity for water and absorb water vapor from the atmosphere at every opportunity. Once contaminated with water, turbine lubricants begin to form corrosive acids, which can become quite harmful to engine components over time.”

Exposure to elevated water contamination over time can also loosen deposits inside the engine’s lubrication system, he noted. This can present issues during test flights, or when the aircraft is returned to service.

Meanwhile, the practice of packing large numbers of parked aircraft into whatever space is available presents “an unusual challenge in itself,” Barnes says. “This crowding means engines cannot be operated or exercised and, consequently, water contamination may accumulate in their lubrication systems. Another challenge is personnel changes and ensuring there are enough people available to manage all this maintenance work.”

Other Vulnerable Areas

Most aircraft systems are vulnerable to corrosion during periods of extended inactivity. Some of the most vulnerable surfaces – beyond those inside aircraft engines – are fuel tanks, fuel and hydraulic lines.

For instance, the cavity of air above the fluid line is called the ‘headspace’. During normal operations the air within the headspace, which may contain moisture is frequently exchanged and exhausted. During idle periods air inside the headspace is not exchanged, and the moist air remains trapped in the headspace.

“Throughout the day the airspace heats and cools,” says Scott Kotvis, Daubert Cromwell’s vice president of Global Business Development. “Each time it cools, moist warm air condenses, creating water droplets that act as a corrosion electrolyte.” Airlines that use products like Daubert Cromwell’s Nox-Rust 1100 VCI Oil in such enclosures are protected from corrosion. But those that don’t may experience headspace corrosion in their aircraft, just by leaving them parked and doing nothing.

The Consequences Are Real

The unexpected consequences of storing aircraft quickly during COVID-19 were highlighted in July 2020, when the FAA released Emergency Airworthiness Directive (EAD) 2020-16-51 for all parked Boeing 737 Classic (CL) and Boeing 737 NextGeneration (NG) aircraft. It applied to the engine bleed air fifth stage check valve on the CFM56 engines that power the 737CL (CFM56-3 series) and the 737NG (CFM56-7 series) on aircraft that were stored for seven or more consecutive days.

“This emergency AD was prompted by four recent reports of single-engine shutdowns due to engine bleed air 5th stage check valves being stuck open,” says FAA EAD 2020-16-51. “Corrosion of the engine bleed air 5th stage check valve internal parts during airplane storage may cause the valve to stick in the open position. If this valve opens normally at takeoff power, it may become stuck in the open position during flight and fail to close when power is reduced at top of descent, resulting in an unrecoverable compressor stall and the inability to restart the engine. Corrosion of these valves on both engines could result in a dual-engine power loss without the ability to restart.”

In other words, the corrosion on these valves could lead to B737CLs and B737NG’s experiencing dual engine failures in flight – just because they had been parked for seven consecutive days or more!

The life-saving remedy to this problem was simple aircraft maintenance, specifically “inspections of the engine bleed air 5th stage check valve on each engine and replacement of the engine bleed air 5th stage check valve if any inspection is not passed,” says FAA EAD 2020-16-51. The fact that maintenance solved the problem underlines how important preventative maintenance is during COVID-19, both before an aircraft is parked and then while it is sitting on the ground.

Protecting Parked Aircraft Through Preventative Maintenance

If there is a moral to the tale above, it is that aircraft require preventative maintenance prior to being parked, and then while on the ground until they are returned to service.

“Corrosion never sleeps, so if the aircraft is in storage of being flown it still needs to be on a corrosion protection program,” says Mark Pearson. He owns Learchem, which makes the ACF-50 (Anti-Corrosion Formula) lubricant that ‘creeps’ into the tightest seams, lap joints, and around rivet heads to displace moisture and corrosive fluids such as orange juice, Coke, and salt water. “Corrosion is like the insidious COVID 19 virus, except it causes havoc to the airframe, avionics and engines rather than to people,” he says.

Pearson’s point is echoed by Zip-Chem’s Pottier. “Airlines need to assess the condition of every airframe and powerplant that they plan to park for corrosion issues that need to be addressed,” he says. The place to start this assessment is by referring to the specific Aircraft Maintenance Manual (AMM) guidelines developed by the OEM and the operator’s engineering staff “to protect and preserve their aircraft for storage and subsequent return-to-service,” he says. In doing so, “they must be vigilant in the process.”

This approach is endorsed by Boeing. “The AMM Storage procedures (preservation tasks) provide detailed instructions on how to adequately protect the areas of airframe and engines that may be prone to corrosion,” says Boeing spokesperson. “These tasks include cleaning procedures, application of protective coatings and periodic repeat inspections. Boeing guidelines also advise operators to cycle engines on a set schedule which helps maintain the health of the engines and supporting components.”

Taking Care of Airframes Before and During Storage

When it comes to taking care of airframes before and during storage, Simon Parnell knows what he is talking about. Parnell is aerospace sales manager for ROCOL, which makes aerospace lubricants and corrosion protection products that have been approved by commercial and defense OEMs/operators such as Airbus, Boeing, Rolls Royce and NATO. His company has also given serious consideration to the practice of parking aircraft during the pandemic, and has formulated some sound advice.

Before parking the aircraft, “the exterior should be thoroughly washed, with particular attention paid to wheel wells and landing gear to ensure the complete removal of any contaminants such as runway ice or snow removal compounds, sand and dirt to help prevent any corrosion issues,” says Parnell. “Once the aircraft has been fully cleaned and any corrosion removed or treated, carry out usual lubrication procedures using a general airframe grease or landing gear grease then apply corrosion protection compounds, particularly to unpainted metal parts.”

Once the aircraft has been parked, regular maintenance is a must. “If possible, inspect each aircraft on a seven-day cycle,” Parnell says. “A visual inspection every seven days that includes bodywork and protective coverings will highlight any corrosion damage that needs to be addressed through further cleaning, corrosion removal and the reapplication of corrosion protection compounds.”

That’s not all. A more detailed inspection of the airframe should be done every 14 days, with the inspector paying close attention to wheel wells and landing gear. Any corrosion that is detected needs to be corrected immediately to stop it from progressing further, while protection compounds should be reapplied as required. “Taking these proactive steps now together with a robust inspection routine will go a long way to keeping valuable assets flight fit for when they can be returned to normal service,” says Parnell.

Protecting the Engines

Maintaining aircraft engines is a top priority for ExxonMobil, and something that Ed Barnes has thought seriously about.

“To prevent water contamination and, in turn, the risk of corrosion, there are a few maintenance considerations,” he says. “First, engines on parked aircraft need to be periodically operated – long enough to heat the lubricant and drive-off any accumulated water contamination.”

The actual schedule for these periodic operations can be determined by consulting with engine OEMs, and will vary depending on where the on-wing engines are being stored. “For instance, if an aircraft is parked in a desert location it will take longer for water to accumulate in the engine lubricant because of lower ambient humidity,” says Barnes. “In this case, operating the engine for one hour every two weeks may be enough. However, thousands of aircraft are parked today in non-desert airports all over the world and their engines may require more frequent operation for various reasons.”

Fortunately, there are steps that aircraft maintainers can take to check engine health on their own. Specifically, “we recommend periodically testing the turbine oil for water (ppm) and monitoring the total acid number (TAN), and then comparing these to the levels set by the engine OEM,” Barnes says. “ If the water cannot be eliminated by engine operation, and water ppm or TAN are above engine OEM recommended limits, the operator has a few choices: Find a way to operate the engine more frequently, periodically change the lubricant to remove the water, or move to long-term preservation of the lubricant system by adding an approved preservative chemical to the lubrication system.”

Engine lip skins also need to be inspected and protected on a regular basis. “What some airlines are starting to discover is that water and moisture are getting trapped underneath the cloth cover or plastic wrap that are covering their engines in storage,” says Av-DEC’s Jacobson. “This moisture can start to lead to corrosion on engine lip skins, which can result in expensive and time consuming repairs.” According to Jacobson, there are a few commercially options available for sealing engine lip skins, such as Av-DEC’s SF2470 sealant that provides effective moisture barrier while being easy to remove prior to return-to-service.

Lessons Learned

The impact of parking aircraft quickly during COVID-19 has provided aircraft owners and operators with valuable lessons about the importance of preventative maintenance. A case in point: “The pandemic’s effects on commercial aviation have underscored the vulnerability of turbine oil to water contamination, and the resulting degradation of the lubricant,” says ExxonMobil’s Barnes. “We recommend airlines continue their focus on maintaining the integrity of their turbine oil.”

Other lessons may take a while to make themselves apparent. For instance, “many of the airlines are currently spraying disinfection spray into their cabins between flights, and the potential corrosive effects if any might be seen in few years,” says Av-DEC’s Jacobson. “Also, many of the aircraft that are currently parked due to Covid-19 and the 737MAX grounding will need to be re-inspected before they get put back into service. As these inspections occur new corrosion issues might be discovered on the aircraft.”

The bottom line? “As extended parking or storage has become the norm for airlines during COVID-19, we anticipate that those operators that have implemented a robust maintenance and corrosion protection regime will realize the benefits of lower costs and shorter lead-times to return fleets to flight,” says ROCOL’s Parnell. “Overall, we would like to think that operators will realize the value in using high quality corrosion protection products combined with a robust maintenance regime at all times.”