Intelligence: News

AAC Delivers Airbus Corporate Jet to Customer in Asia

Associated Air Center (AAC) announced the delivery of an Airbus Corporate Jet (ACJ) VIP interior — its 11th luxury jet delivery in the ACJ program.

The aircraft was delivered to a customer based in Asia. This is the second of three ACJ aircraft being completed for this customer at Associated Air Center.

"Associated Air Center is very pleased to deliver the second of three nearly identical luxury interior aircraft for our customer," said Patrick Altuna, executive vice president. "This VIP interior is a very modern design, with neutral color schemes, tans and cream colors throughout."

Featured are a spacious executive bedroom and lavatory with shower and storage closets, private office and sofas that provide seating as well as sleeping positions (similar to the one shown at left).

As part of the state-of-the-art cabin management and entertainment system, the aircraft includes a karaoke machine.

AAC became an Airbus ACJ Authorized Completions Center in 2003. The operation is an approved ACJ Service Center and, in 2005, successfully completed the first five-year C-check for a head-of-state layout for the ACJ.

Business as Usual During Fargo Jet Center Remodeling

Work has begun at Fargo Jet Center, Inc. (FJCI) on a major remodeling project, although the company insists that customers and travelers will not be inconvenienced. The passenger terminal, pilot’s area and flight planning facility will be temporarily relocated to an adjacent terminal, only 300 feet west.

"We’ve spent many hours preparing for this renovation to ensure our customers are not inconvenienced," said Jim Sweeney, president, FJCI. "Customers will receive the same outstanding service during construction they’ve grown accustomed to at Fargo Jet Center," Sweeney added.

The remodeling project has been underway since the fall of 2007 and includes upgrades and reconfiguration of the passenger and pilot facilities; construction of new maintenance organization offices; and technical workspace in the maintenance hangar. Completion of all the renovation is projected for the spring of 2008.

"Our work efficiencies will increase significantly with the improvements in our new workspace, maintenance and administrative office areas," said Sweeney.

Right Hemisphere Provides Software to Eclipse, Sikorsky

Eclipse Aviation announced it will generate consistent and transferable manufacturing and maintenance procedures for use at its production facilities in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and its service centers in the United States. With a software suite from Right Hemisphere, Eclipse will develop illustrated production and maintenance instructions from the original 3-D computer-aided design of the Eclipse 500 very light jet.

"Eclipse Aviation strives to use the most advanced technology available and the design of the Eclipse 500 was guided by this principle," said Vern Raburn, Eclipse Aviation president and CEO. "In our drive toward continuous improvement, Eclipse will use the software from Right Hemisphere to produce standardized graphic instructions for our manufacturing and maintenance technicians, no matter where they work."

Right Hemisphere’s fully integrated software suite will translate the Eclipse 500’s design into interactive production instructions. This will reduce the time required to create written production and maintenance directions and the interpretation needed to change engineering models into production applications. Additionally, when applied to the production line, technicians can visualize work as it is performed and make improvements at any step in the production process.

Eclipse Aviation trainees will be able to learn from the simulated work process created by the software. The company hopes that transforming the design of the Eclipse 500 into easy-to-use visual steps will also reduce manufacturing and maintenance training time.

In addition, Right Hemisphere announced in December that Sikorsky Aircraft is implementing its Deep Server enterprise software. Deep Server is part of the Right Hemisphere 5 visual communication and collaboration software platform. The software will help automate the creation of lightweight 3-D product graphics for functional teams and suppliers to reference. Sikorsky hopes this will save critical development time and expense for the CH-53K helicopter program. The software’s automatic translation and publishing capabilities are expected to speed up Sikorsky’s current processes for building documentation such as customer briefing presentations, request for quotes and shop floor assembly instruction sheets.