Marshall Aerospace www.marshallaerospace.com not just heavy maintenance.

Contact Mick Milne on +44 1223 373737

In what are clearly uncertain times, the Marshall Group is comparatively well placed to cope with the challenges that are coming. In particular Marshall Aerospace is fortunate to have a number of long term contracts in place. Award of the TriStar Operational Support Contract (TRIOS) from the MoD in October 2008 gives a great underpinning workload, but with it comes responsibility to ensure delivery of the capability, and availability of resource required to support the Royal Air Force’s vital overseas missions. 2009 marks the 80th year for Marshall Aerospace.

Aero engine nacelles

Marshall Aerospace has begun the structural design and build of the aero engine nacelles for the new advanced light jet, HondaJet.

The company was contracted in August by Honda Aircraft Company to

produce the nacelles.

Through extensive experimentation and testing, Honda engineers

discovered an optimal over-the-wing engine mounts configuration that

actually achieves lower drag than the standard rear-fuselage engine

mount design. This innovative and unique aircraft design is to be produced by

MA through the structural design and manufacture of the nacelle. This

will be done at Cambridge facility in the UK, with the first set due for

delivery to Honda Aircraft Company in early 2009.

MA was chosen for its ability to design and build a cost effective, light

weight solution to a demanding schedule. Utilising its wide engineering

experience and expertise, MA has selected the optimum technologies

to build one of its cost effective total supply chain solutions.

“Marshall Aerospace welcomes this opportunity to work with Honda

Aircraft Company on such an exciting opportunity,” says Phil Windred,

Head of Aerostructures, “Marshall is applying the optimum technology

to deliver the best possible nacelle for HondaJet as our contribution to

the success of this plane, which is clearly one of the best light jets

available on the market.”

HondaJet is an advanced light jet with revolutionary technology and

design attributes that help it achieve better fuel efficiency, more

available cabin and luggage space, and higher cruise speeds.

HondaJet offers European business and personal light jet owners and

operators a maximum cruise speed of 420KTAS (773 kph / 483

mph) and luxurious accommodations for five passengers and two crew

in its executive configuration, including a fully private lavatory design. HondaJet is powered by two highly fuel-efficient GE Honda HF120 turbofan

jet engines.

HondaJet was designed and developed by Honda engineers working in

the U.S. and Japan, and research work that led to the creation of

HondaJet began in 1986. The jet was constructed by Honda R&D Americas in Greensboro, North Carolina, and all flight tests have been conducted in the U.S. The Honda Aircraft Company, Inc., headquartered in Greensboro, was established in October 2006 to oversee certification, production and sales of HondaJet.

In December 2003, major ground tests including structural proof tests, control-system proof tests, system function tests and ground

vibration tests were completed, and HondaJet made its first flight on

December 2, 2003. Through September 2007, HondaJet has recorded more than 330 flight hours. Honda Aircraft Company anticipates its first test flight of a conforming model in early 2009, and is concurrently pursuing European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) certification with FAA certification.

Honda Aircraft Company began sales of the advanced and innovative HondaJet in October 2006 in the U.S. and has quickly amassed orders for well over 100 aircraft. HondaJet is Honda's first-ever commercial aircraft.

Military Aircraft Support and aircraft modification

The award of TRIOS is coincident with Marshall Aerospace celebrating the 25th Anniversary of its support for the RAF’s TriStar aircraft. Since converting the aircraft for military operations in 1983, the aircraft have provided critical strategic airlift to UK defence in a large number of operations. More recently, the aircraft has been at the forefront of middle-east operations, receiving aircraft modification designed and installed by Marshall Aerospace. Today, the TriStar fleet is receiving avionics modification, a ‘glass’ flight deck, at Cambridge, to provide global air traffic compliance into the next decade. The Air Refuelling & Communications Fleets Integrated Project Team (ARC IPT) is the logistics and engineering support authority for the RAF TriStar aircraft and part of Defence Equipment & Support (DE&S),MoD.Marshall Aerospace is the MOD-appointed design organisation for the RAF TriStar fleet.

On the 21st October, Marshall Aerospace was awarded a £97m. contract by the UK Ministry of Defence to sustain the Royal Air Force’s Tristar fleet. Under Tristar Integrated Operational Support (TRIOS), the UK MOD and Industry will provide integrated maintenance, engineering and supply support to the RAF’s fleet until 2015. This contract will assure future aircraft availability and is expected to deliver around £10M in savings to the MOD over the life of the contract.

The RAF’s TriStar fleet is operated by No 216 Squadron, based at RAF Brize Norton, which is responsible for providing the UK ‘Airbridge’ to the Middle East. TRIOS will introduce new processes and specialist roles to Brize Norton, supplementing the MOD’s Front Office, while strengthening the supply chain presence.

The TRIOS contract brings together Industry partners Marshall Aerospace, Flight Support Services (FSS) and Abu Dhabi Aircraft Technologies (ADAT) with the UK MOD, to provide a truly integrated support solution. FSS will act as the Prime Spares Supplier from their base in Fergus Ontario, Canada, while ADAT will deliver aircraft ‘Availability-from-Depth’ covering heavy

maintenance and modification work from its facility in Abu Dhabi, UAE, both under new incentivised arrangements. Cambridge will act as the hub for TRIOS, linking engineering, supply, aircraft maintenance and programme management.

Marshall Aerospace’s Chief Executive, Martin Broadhurst, said “We are very pleased to be working in partnership with the Royal Air Force, UK MOD, ADAT and FSS to deliver sustainable availability for the TriStar fleet through to its out of service date. The TriStar is a vital component in the Royal Air Force capability and the company is delighted to have the opportunity to continue its association with this great aircraft.”

Tony Martin, President & Director of Sales at FSS, added that “Flight

Support Services of Canada Ltd is proud to be associated with Marshall Aerospace in providing ongoing spares logistic support for and on behalf of the Royal Air Force and in particular 216 Squadron. This partnership can only enhance the ongoing reliability of the L-1011 platform and the theatre missions that the aircraft are consistently called upon to perform.”

Chief Executive of ADAT Mr John Byers commented "We are committed to TRIOS and through this delivery vehicle will continue to provide our first class MRO service to the MOD. Our partnership with MA will ensure timely aircraft availability for RAF's operational requirements.

Corporate Aircraft Maintenance at the Business Aviation Centre

The airport formerly known as Cambridge City Airport has changed its name

and will now be known as Marshall Airport Cambridge UK to coincide with the

latest exciting development at the airport – the Marshall Business Aviation

Centre. This new identity signifies a new era for the Airport and creates an ideal opportunity to benefit from the Marshall name with all it represents, whilst maintaining the strong connection to the world-renowned City of Cambridge and the surrounding community.

Recently Marshall and the Airport have focussed their attentions on the

expanding business aviation industry. Whilst benefiting from current airport

and engineering facilities on site at Cambridge, Marshall has invested £4.7

million in state-of-the-art technology to construct the new business aviation

centre and business aircraft maintenance facility.

The Marshall Business Aviation Centre comprises of an executive handling

facility for travellers, a conference suite, and planning centre and rest cabins for pilots, adjacent to an integrated business aircraft maintenance facility which doubles the current capacity at Cambridge.

The new Marshall Business Aviation Centre comprises impressive VIP lounges,

alongside a state-of-the-art conference facility – both of which enjoy exceptional hospitality and catering, and business services including WIFI internet connectivity. A unique feature of these suites is the outstanding view across the airfield and the Cambridgeshire countryside beyond, as well as an elevated view into the maintenance facility. For additional comfort and peace of mind, there is also secure parking located immediately outside the Business Aviation Centre.

Pilots and flight crew have access to flight planning facilities and weather

centres, crew rest cabins and quiet rooms, with passenger and aircraft

catering looked after by the Operations & Handling Team. Adjacent to the

executive handling facilities is an integrated maintenance facility which doubles the current capacity for corporate aircraft maintenance at Cambridge. Aircraft owners and operators will benefit from this integration as customer fleet offices will also be available within the centre.

During 2009 the Marshall Group will be celebrating their centenary, and June

9th marks the 80th anniversary of the opening of the first Cambridge airfield.

On June 9th Marshall Airport Cambridge UK and Marshall Business Aviation will

host the fifth Business & General Aviation Day with European Business Air News

magazine to celebrate this important milestone.

Aircraft conversions and aircraft modernisation programmes.

Our industry is rich with aircraft avionics modernisation programmes.

These exist for several reasons, with perhaps the main one being the

necessity to meet current and emerging regulatory requirements which enable aircraft to access worldwide airspace. Another important driver is endeavouring to avoid potential obsolescence issues, and the spiralling maintenance costs associated with aging systems. Furthermore, in the military sector, there is a need to improve mission capabilities in such areas as enhanced situation awareness and improved communications security.

However, whatever the reasons, modernising an aircraft has its challenges; particularly if the aircraft is no longer in production, which is often the case. Indeed, the remit may be to upgrade an aircraft manufactured decades ago, whilst retaining as much legacy equipment as possible due to economical constraints and also to adhere to the old engineering adage about not fixing things which are not broken.

The retention of legacy units and sub-systems during an upgrade means systems integrators are tasked with integrating predominantly digital systems (for example based on MIL STD 1553, ARINC 429 or newer data protocols such as Avionics Full Duplex (AFDX) switched Ethernet) into an aircraft built in the ‘analogue era’.

Also, for these decades-old aircraft, whilst maintenance manuals and associated documentation may exist (and the aircraft and its systems would have been built and certified to the standards of the day), interface data will most likely be sparse. In such cases it is necessary to establish a known baseline for the aircraft and then test and measure its systems to verify compliance. Only then can you have complete confidence to start aircraft modernisation programmes.

For example, two H-model C-130 Hercules aircraft, originally built in the 1970s, are currently undergoing extensive avionics modifications at Marshall Aerospace in Cambridge.

At the heart of the programme is the installation of a Communications,

Navigation, Surveillance/Air Traffic Management (CNS/ATM) compliant Flight Management System (FMS) and display and surveillance systems. The reason for the FMS is that with increasing amounts of traffic in controlled airspace, and the increasing accuracy requirements for aircraft navigation equipment, more aircraft are able to operate in a given amount of airspace.

The display system consists of six flat panel displays which incorporate

the functionality of the many original electromechanical displays. This

brings enhanced situation awareness while greatly increasing reliability

and redundancy. The surveillance systems include Traffic Alert and Collision Avoidance System TCAS (mandatory for aircraft entering controlled airspace) and a Ground Proximity Warning Systems, which enhance safety.

However, the two aircrafts’ original analogue autopilot systems are to

remain, which means it is necessary to employ signal converters.

At a fundamental level these are digital-to-analogue and analogue-to-digital

converters - with the appropriate algorithms and signal conditioning to ensure the signals from/to the converter are fully compliant with the buses on which they reside. Unfortunately, converters with the necessary environmental clearances are not standard off-the-shelf items for most aircraft platforms; and the lack of such devices was one of the reasons Marshall Aerospace

established a dedicated Technology Group.

The autopilot requires 13 analogue I/O signals whereas on the digital side of the converter the inputs from the FMS and displays are operating over an ARINC 429 data bus. With the luxury of having the aircraft on-site, Marshall Aerospace’s Technology Group began its programme activities by reverse engineering the autopilot’s communications protocols and then devising suitable conversion algorithms.

Also, with re-use in mind, the avionics converters developed by the group are capable of supporting other ‘translations’. For example, other avionics converters to be used on the same programme convert from ARINC 429 to RS-232 and from ARINC 429 to MIL STD 1553. Further, another C-130 programme is requiring translation between AFDX and a mix of analogue and digital discrete signals. The group is also developing an optical to electronic interface.

Interestingly, as is often the case in the world of engineering, developing a technical solution because an off-the-shelf product does not exist means you may have in fact just put products on the shelf. However, it was always the intent that, as well as developing new skills and capabilities, within Marshall Aerospace, the avionics converters would also fill a gap in the market, and the company has already received enquiries from other aerospace companies which are also interested in procuring the avionics converters.

As for the Technology Group, whilst yes, it is the duty of any company boasting design and development capabilities to find ‘solutions to problems’, Marshall Aerospace’s engineers are doing far more than just avionics converters. The group is currently active on control system programmes, developing system-level strategies and pioneering a number of health and usage monitoring systems and techniques.

Continuing Airworthiness Management Organisation CAMO Marshall Aerospace approved for the issuing of ARCs.

New European legislation has opened the door for third party organisations to be approved as Continuing Airworthiness Management Organisations (CAMO) under EASA Part M Sub-Part G, and Marshall Aerospace is proud to announce that as of 15th December the company has achieved CAMO approval. Operators as well as private owners can now take advantage of MA’s operational support by subcontracting continuing airworthiness, as well as fleet management to MA.

MA already has multiple operational support contracts for fleet management, and in approaching its centenary the organisation has decided to expand its activities to the area of continuing airworthiness management and is authorised to ensure the continuing airworthiness management of aircraft along with the responsibility of issuing required Airworthiness Review Certificates (ARCs). This new service will be provided from Marshall’s main UK site in Cambridge, as well as its regional office in Leiden, The Netherlands.