How MROs are preparing for new technology aircraft

The A380 was the forerunner, but the B787 will deliver even more radical changes in systems and materials. All of that presents challenges for airline and independent maintenance, repair and overhaul organizations – and for engineering training organizations as well.

Qantas’ executive manager Engineering Chris Nassenstein concedes that there are challenges arising from the new generation of airliners:

“Apart from the size of the A380, which has had its own challenges, there’s a whole bunch of new materials out there that we need to prepare the workforce for. Carbon fibre composites, GLARE, aluminum core electric wiring in pressurized areas, and the electronics on board the airplane are becoming quite sophisticated, including the in-flight entertainment systems. We have new 5000 psi hydraulic systems on the A380 that people have to get used to.

“On the 787 there is the issue of it being a fully electric airplane, with electrical brakes and the voltage is now higher than before, posing a completely new challenge as far as safety is concerned let alone training our people. The 787 is not an immediate challenge but certainly we need to prepare ourselves for that.

“Then there are our new hand held ‘tough books’ which use WiFi technology so that mechanics are actually able to call up information such as manuals and component availability on the screen. We are trying this out on the A380 to start with. That is certainly a sign of things to come, as our present information management systems will not be able to adequately cope with these aircraft going forward.

“Aircraft damage scenarios are going to be quite different. We will need to look at new repair techniques on the 787, so we are starting to get ourselves ready for that airplane as well. It is a very different environment, but interestingly enough for repairs on the primary structure of the 787 we will still use a lot of the old techniques like bolting and riveting on repair doublers.

“And within the regulatory environment there is a change of legislation in Australia where we are going more to an EASA oriented licensing system. We now have a dedicated workforce on the A380 piloting the two new licences, the B1 and the B2 licences. And we are looking at rolling out the A licence at some time in the future.”

Narrow body work less urgent

Andrew Henderson, general manager of John Holland Aviation Services, believes that the likely quantum step for his operation will be the advent of the replacements for the A320 and B737 narrow bodies:

“We have not seen a significant change in the work that we are undertaking because the current generation of aircraft haven’t extended the airframe technology very much in the last 10 years. So, for our business, until the replacements for the 737NGs or A320s come through the impact on us will not be all that high. As far as preparation for us is concerned it’s relatively light, but when we understand more about where the narrow body aircraft are going to go, we will make some pretty aggressive inroads into it because it will be mission critical for us to have that capability.

“We’ll probably do some work with the 787s and probably need to have the capacity to do repairs arising from flight damage such as birdstrikes. We’ll need to upgrade our NDI capabilities to ensure we’ve got the suite of capabilities necessary to identify problems. But we understand they are all fairly minor straightforward tasks and the information we’ve got to hand at the moment says that conventional repair techniques will generally be applicable for these new composite aircraft. We expect to use conventional repairs like riveting aluminium on top of them as the standard repair method. This being the case, we don’t see it as having a major impact on us. Until we determine whether there is really going to be a market for deeper maintenance in Australia for the new wide bodied aircraft we won’t be making many further inroads.”

Henderson also perceives issues around the move to a new licensing regime: “Access to the modern aircraft type licences is always an issue and will continue to be, given the aggressive fleet growth planned over the next few years, but the demand for some of the support skills is lessening as we see the Australian dollar driving more and more deep heavy checks overseas.”

Shifting the investment boundaries

Former executive GM Engineering at Qantas David Cox remains intimate with developments in the MRO arena:

“You’ve got aircraft coming in these days with components and technologies where the reliability is multiples of what it was in the early days. What that really does is shift the boundary of where a successful business case can justify the investment in the tooling and training for some things in both the component and heavy maintenance environments.

“With the A380 the volumes are always going to be fairly low; and that means you’ve got to put a lot of emphasis on innovative support arrangements, try to find ways to amortise your investment and also look for partnerships to either build volume, or even in some cases to try and encourage a market to form, to get an economically viable support option.

“And where that also takes you is making sure that you shift the skill balance from not just being able to do the work but be able to procure the work effectiviely and have really good purchasing skills and processes.

“The 787’s heavy maintenance requirements are such that the technology has the potential for an ironic reversal of the outsourcing process in that as the number of maintenance hours per flying hour drops as the technology changes, it may actually drive you back to doing some of it yourself, because the ferry times etc become a larger proportion of the cost and time.

“There will be the normal teething problems with the new technologies but I don’t expect anything that’s not soluble.

“The best answer to the skills challenge is retraining to move the skills to where they are most needed, especially from areas of surplus created by restructuring or the new technologies. There is a potential win-win here for labour and management. New starters can be attracted as people still value being part of the industry. Aviation remains a very attractive option as a career.

“The support needs of the new technologies require economies of scale that will play into the hands of the Lufthansas and the Singapores and perhaps the Middle East. It supports continued consolidation in the MRO sector.”

The manufacturer’s role in MRO

“The other factor is the role of the manufacturer,” David Cox adds. “A lot of the deals for the 787 were done as support deals plus supply, so it is a bit of lever for the manufacturers of components and other parts to erode that consolidation of the MROs.”

Saj Ahmad, an analyst at FBE Aerospace in London, is also focused on the role of the OEMs in maintenance going forward:

“With a slew of new materials being introduced on the 787, A350 and to a lesser extent on the CSeries and Comac C919 families, airlines are having to embark on a rigorous training and education regime to equip its mechanics and technicians with the knowledge and experience to work with these new components. We’ve seen ANA and Boeing complete a major maintenance training class on the 787 as well as TUI signing up for the GoldCare after-sales service support package for its 787s and Airbus will likely introduce a similar structure for the A350XWB.

“The critical aspect here is that the OEMs seem to be ‘monopolising’ their own product support – without new MRO’s coming in to offer similar support costs for such lifecycle support will be high. Once we see more 787s and A350s in service, the knowledge base will be spread far and wide, enabling dedicated overhaul companies to leverage their speciality in maintenance to provide lower cost alternatives. Would it be fair to say customers are at the mercy of OEMs in the short term? Absolutely. However we must also recognise that the industry is evolving with the new materials being introduced – this is a game-changing step for all parties.”

The training perspective

CEO of Brisbane-based Aviation Australia, Paul Bredereck, doesn’t perceive dramatic change in the way his training entity does business:

“The changes that we experience at the training level are incremental each year, so we’re able to keep up with the changes as they occur. There’s no big ground-breaking technology in any one hit.

“For example, with the B787, we’ve known about the technologies going into that aircraft for some time, like the all-electric systems, the composite structures. The underpinning technology has filtered into our training programs progressively.

“The challenge for education providers such as Aviation Australia is to be able to introduce the technology in time for when those skills are required and to identify the emerging needs and trends. So we need to be looking ahead to five or 10 years time.

“The challenges at the moment are not technologies, the real challenges are management and leadership skills. In the ’70s, ‘80s and even ‘90s the main provider of management graduates were Qantas and Ansett, via graduate engineering and cadet programs. Many of the most notable industry leaders around came through these channels. But the tap has dried up on that to a degree and one of the concerns we’ve got is that that pool of people is dwindling. They are still doing the training but they’re not out there as a net supplier to industry. And we believe that it’s not going to be many years before that starts to bite us.

“We have already embedded some foundation management skills in our programs. We’ve achieved basic management and cognitive skills and disciplines and now we are looking at other higher education pathways to take that to the next level.

“The other challenge that we are working on is ensuring that we have the appropriate programs in place to meet the considerable environmental challenges facing our industry as they are required. Already, Aviation Australia has commenced making incremental changes to reflect emerging industry trends and commitments.”

It appears there’s actually plenty of change inherent in the move to new technology aircraft - and it would be wise not to underestimate the ramifications for MRO businesses.