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American Eurocopter expands its repair and overhaul services

May 19, 2009

To further enhance customer satisfaction, American Eurocopter is significantly expanding the MRO (maintenance, repair and overhaul) capabilities at its Grand Prairie, Texas headquarters, which includes new support for the growing U.S. inventory of EC135/EC145 helicopters.

Overhaul of EC135 main gear boxes is now underway at American Eurocopter’s Grand Prairie facility, with deliveries of up to 14 planned this year.

As a result, operators of the company’s various rotary-wing aircraft will be offered improved service and shorter turnaround times – benefitting from significantly more in-house capability for gearbox overhauls, rotor blade repair, heavy airframe rebuilds and avionics repair.

To provide these expanded MRO capabilities, American Eurocopter has made major investments in material, equipment and technical personnel at Grand Prairie.  This includes upgrading one of the facility’s multi-function dynamic component test benches to perform EC135 main gear box overhauls.  An all-new heavy maintenance, repair and inspection activity has been introduced for helicopter airframes, and the blade shop also has been enhanced to allow it to work on EC135/EC145 main rotor blades. 

The EC135 is a particular focus for American Eurocopter’s MRO expansion, as there are more than 200 of these helicopters flying in the United States.  They are used by customers in a full range of duties – with many providing mission-critical emergency medical services (EMS), along with law enforcement and off-shore operations.

With the introduction of its EC135 main gear box overhaul and repair, American Eurocopter is now able to service all EC135 dynamic components.   Previously, only the main gear box’s manufacturer, ZF Luftfahrttechnik (ZFL), could work on its product in Germany as a single-source repair situation.

To accommodate American Eurocopter’s EC135 main gear box maintenance and overhaul activity, a top priority was the upgrade of its largest multi-purpose dynamic rotor component test bench at Grand Prairie.  In addition, the company acquired additional tooling, stocked up on the equivalent of spares for 20 gear boxes and had its personnel trained in Germany.  The first overhauled EC135 main gear box was delivered this month, with 10 to 13 more to be completed and supplied during 2009.

This activity is in addition to American Eurocopter’s already existing dynamic component repair capability for main gear boxes, intermediate gear boxes, tail rotor gear boxes, as well as main and tail rotor heads for the BO105, BK117, AS350, AS355 and AS365.

American Eurocopter’s airframe jig enables the company to handle heavy repair, conversion, maintenance and inspection activity for AS350, AS355 and EC130 helicopters.

Another new American Eurocopter MRO initiative is the growth of its already-extensive blade repair capabilities, adding the EC135 and EC145 main rotor blades to its portfolio – which will dramatically decrease turn time.

American Eurocopter EC135/EC145 blade repair will begin this September in Texas after training is completed for American Eurocopter personnel.  The repair capacity will be important for the already-substantial U.S. EC135 fleet, and will position American Eurocopter to support the U.S. Army’s inventory of 345 UH-72A Lakota Light Utility Helicopters – a version of the EC145 – which is being phased into service through 2016.

The company handled a total of 830 blade repairs during 2008, and the overall 10,000th repair milestone was reached last November in its work on blades for the EC120, EC130, AS350, AS355, AS365, AS366, EC155, BK117 and BO105. 

The third element of American Eurocopter’s MRO expansion is its new airframe inspection, maintenance, heavy repair and conversion activity.  American Eurocopter invested in a highly sophisticated airframe jig that allows this work to be performed at Grand Prairie for the AS350, AS355 and EC130 – and which includes rebuilds for aircraft involved in hard landings and accidents.

In addition to owning the only jig of this kind outside of Europe, American Eurocopter personnel currently are in training with Eurocopter for the qualification to perform heavy repair design at the Grand Prairie facility.   Future growth is planned with the addition of EC135/EC145 heavy repair capability.

For the longer term, American Eurocopter is considering expanding its avionics repair shop.   Current repair activity includes the command and stability augmentation system (CSAS) on BK117s, Cabin Intercommunication Data Systems (CIDS) used on Airbus jetliners, as well as in-seat passenger power supply units for Airbus and Boeing aircraft.

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