Maintenance

A laser look at turbine engine refurbishing Both land-based and aerospace engine manufacturers are increasingly outsourcing turbine engine repair and refurbishing, a rapidly growing business requiring specialized equipment and experience. Read full story

Putting designs on power supplies Today’s avionics and ground-vehicle electronics designers voice common concerns about power supplies, including the need to reduce weight, improve both efficiency and reliability, and hot-swap ability and load sharing. Read full story

Battelle developing robot to maintain the inside of aircraft fuel tanks Several years ago, U.S. Air Force maintenance technicians at Tinker Air Force Base discovered that an additive designed to remove water from traditional JP8 jet fuel was unexpectedly causing paint to peel off the inside of B-52 fuel tanks. The main concern was that the paint chips could clog the fuel filter and cause an engine flameout. Read full story

Tail docking system safely cuts costs Elaborate rollout ceremonies are expected for new airplanes, but in the world of engineering and manufacturing, a stylish event built up around an engineering support structure is a rarity. This pattern was broken when engineering firm Semmco staged a ceremony to introduce its tail docking system at London’s Heathrow Airport in the maintenance hangar of U.K. operator bmi. Read full story