Jet Aviation combines state-of-the-art capabilities with in-house engineering to give customers fast, flexible solutions for inspection problems and repairs.

There are two things you can say about today’s global aircraft fleet: it’s getting bigger and it’s getting older. With this advancing age comes an increased demand for more efficient and cost-effective ways to inspect, maintain, and alter aircraft. That demand is complicated by the fact that many aircraft are operated on the other side of the world from where they were built.

Supplying the services to meet that demand requires a company with specialized capabilities and a commitment to satisfy customers’ maintenance needs wherever and whenever the customer happens to be. Jet Aviation aims to be that company.

Basel, Switzerland-based Jet Aviation provides a wide range of aircraft maintenance and management services, but two highlight its pursuit of that market niche: its mobile NDT services and its in-house engineering.

NDT to go

When Jet Aviation set up its nondestructive testing (NDT) facility in Basel more than 10 years ago, it sought to provide the best structural test capabilities available, said Jürgen Lindgens, the company’s manager of NDT services. "Today, through continual expansion and additions, we have the capabilities and experience to do any test a situation requires."

But the company’s NDT market isn’t just in Basel. Jet Aviation owns 15 maintenance facilities spread across Europe, the Middle East, and Far East. Its NDT experts in Basel are often called upon to take their equipment and experience on the road to inspect customer aircraft and do pre-installation inspection of parts and components that Jet Aviation’s fabricators create for a customer’s aircraft. Lindgens said he had just returned from a trip to inspect fan disks on Rolls-Royce/BMW engines at a variety of locations in Europe and the Middle East. "Because much of the equipment we use in our inspections is so small and lightweight," he said, "I can easily travel with it in my bag."

Sometimes, however, the solutions are not so portable. Lindgens recalled one case in which a customer’s Gulfstream II had been flown from India to Singapore for maintenance. It was determined that the aircraft required an inspection of station 580, the area right behind the rear of the pressure vessel. Gulfstream has a long-standing directive for on-going inspections of this area for corrosion, because moisture builds up on the outside of the pressure vessel and runs down into the airframe and bulkhead.

One way to do the inspection is with a Philips ComScan. This X-ray device uses backscatter radiation to create an image of the area on film that is on the same side of the structure as the camera. Because you don’t have to have the structure positioned between the X-ray head and the film, relatively little disassembly is required.

Jet Aviation has one of the few ComScan units in Europe or Asia. So the NDT group packed the ComScan unit in a 40-foot maritime shipping container and sent it to Singapore. Lindgens flew there, checked out the device, and performed the inspection.

"The only other option was to fly the airplane here to Basel or to the states for an inspection," Lindgens said, "but the customer didn’t have the time."

The corrosion he found could be repaired without a major structural disassembly. "The aircraft was down for only a couple of weeks," he said. "It was a lot of effort on our part, but in the end the Singapore facility management and the customer were very happy."

Learjet NDT

Jet Aviation also does extensive X-ray inspections of Learjets on the road. The aircraft requires a 12,000-hour inspection, which concentrates on the wings and control surfaces, and a 12-year inspection, which highlights the fuselage. Both require a lot of X-ray shots.

Once the aircraft is prepared, the typical Learjet inspection involves two or three days of nonstop work that is done according to a precise program, he said. Technicians do the X-ray shots at night. During the day, they process the images and perform the other inspections, such as eddy current and ultrasonic.

"It literally takes the effort of our entire team to get it done in the shortest amount of time possible," Lindgens said.

The NDT team has performed these inspections at Jet Aviation’s facilities and customer sites all across Europe, including Geneva, Switzerland and Cologne and Dusseldorf in Germany. One of the biggest customers for this service is the German Air Rescue (DRF), a non-profit medical airlift service that operates two Learjet 35As and one 55 from its base at Baden Baden Airport. "During such big inspections, we always find problems," Lindgens said, "but nothing that isn’t repairable. Everything has localized damage, wear, or corrosion, but we’ve never had to ground a whole airplane."

If the NDT team finds a problem, Jet Aviation’s engineering division can craft a fix for it. Based in San Antonio, Texas, Jet Aviation Engineering Services provides engineering, NDT, structural testing, load analysis, and certification services to the company and other MROs, original equipment manufacturers, and parts makers.

Engineering services

A key advantage is that the unit can provide services and solutions on short notice, said its general manager, Michael Girps. If a repair or modification can’t be done to the specifications of the structural repair manual, he said, Jet Aviation gets it approved by the OEM before it is released. "As soon as any damage is found or a modification is identified, we don’t have to go through an extensive bidding process," he said. "We have all the capabilities in-house. That makes us flexible, fast, and competitive on all levels."

Girps said such capabilities are becoming more valuable to customers as the fleet ages and needs modification and refurbishment. Jet Aviation’s engineers spend most of their time solving everyday problems, like installation of a GPS antenna or structural damage and repair assessments. Sometimes, though, they are called on to create more far-reaching designs. One, for instance, will literally reach the stars.

The company is performing engineering services for L-3 Communications, a contractor for NASA’s Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy program. The project, part of an eight-year venture, involves modifying the airframe of a retired Boeing 747SP to install a 40,000-pound telescope, a protective door, and a 30-inch-thick pressure bulkhead to support the telescope and maintain a normal pressure in the cabin.

Jet Aviation’s role is to provide FAA certification for the entire project, including the science instruments, as well as performing mechanical systems design of the aircraft’s environmental control system, nitrogen cavity cooling system, and APU fuel line.

"It is a very exciting project to be involved with," Girps said. "It is a chance to showcase our capabilities by doing something that few other in-house engineering companies have the opportunity to do."

CONTACT:

Jet Aviation
Basel, Switzerland
Phone: 41-61-325-20240
www.jetaviation.com

Jet Aviation Engineering Services
San Antonio, Texas
Phone: 830-438-7486
www.jetaviation.com/engineering