{"en":"AFI KLM E&M Begins AAM Partnerships, New Airline Contracts"}')>
AFI KLM E&M Begins AAM Partnerships, New Airline Contracts
AFI KLM E&M Begins AAM Partnerships, New Airline Contracts
Details
More Products & Services
Products & Services
Aerospace | Aviation Week Network
Aviation Week
https://aviationweek.com/themes/custom/particle/dist/app-drupal/assets/awn-logo.svg
Home - Aviation Group Marketing
Aviation Week
120 data points on over 156,000 commercial and business aviation aircraft, including military transports. Discover the most trustworthy resource for the complete aircraft history, plus ad hoc reports, month-over-month trend analysis and details on expected deliveries through 2050.
People
Description
LONDON— AFI KLM E&M signed a slew of agreements at Aviation Week's MRO Europe event related to maintenance and new technology.
On Wednesday, Oct. 19 it signed a CFM Branded Service Agreement for LEAP-1A and -1B engines, under which AFI KLM E&M will now provide full scope MRO services for global operators. The agreement was driven in part by Air France KLM's choice to purchase 200 LEAP-1A engines to power its new fleet of Airbus A320neo and A321neo aircraft earlier this year.
It announced component support agreements with two new European airlines, Aeroitalia and Norse Atlantic Airways, on Oct. 17 and Oct. 18, respectively. AFI KLM E&M will provide a range of services under the agreements, including repairs, spare parts, logistics and its Prognos predictive maintenance platform. It also announced a new component support agreement with existing customer Virgin Atlantic on Oct. 19 for the airline's 16 incoming Airbus A330neos.
In the advanced air mobility space, AFI KLM E&M signed two memoranda of understanding (MOU). The first agreement, announced Oct. 18, will see it partner with electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft manufacturer (eVTOL) Ascendance Flight Technologies to explore potential collaboration areas for its five-seat Atea aircraft, which will use distributed hybrid-electric motorization and be able to accept sustainable aviation fuel up to hydrogen. Potential cooperation will focus on areas such as line maintenance, component repair, technician training and airworthiness management.
The Atea will have a range of 400 km (250 mi.), the hybrid-electric powertrain enabling suburban and regional flights. Ascendance is developing the Sterna propulsion system, which combines a turbine engine and batteries, and looking to hydrogen as an energy source longer term. The designs features shrouded rotors, four lift fans, and separate lift and cruise propulsion to avoid having to use a tilting mechanism.
Ascendance is scheduled to fly a full-scale prototype of the Atea in 2023 and begin production in 2025. The startup plans to demonstrate the aircraft at the 2024 Paris Olympics in partnership with airport operator Groupe ADP under the Re-invent Air Mobility initiative.
The second MOU, announced Oct. 19, is with electric aircraft OEM Ampaire, which is currently certifying a nine-seat, hybrid-electric Eco Caravan that it plans to begin flying in 2024. AFI KLM E&M will explore collaboration with Ampaire in mutual interest areas that include aircraft development, maintenance training and support, and data analytics.
“At AFI KLM E&M, we have always been on the lookout for the best innovations in aviation. In particular, we are very interested in electric and hydride electric propulsion technologies, which are set to be future business drivers over the next decade,” says Géry Mortreux, executive vice president of Air France Industries. “I believe that this type of cooperation is in the general interest and is a further illustration of the general mobilization of our industry to decarbonize aviation—a collective effort in which AFI KLM E&M is of course fully involved.”
Explaining potential areas of cooperation with Ampaire, Ton Dortmans, executive vice president of KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, noted: “One of the areas is the engineering side on predictive maintenance. Another one can be our logistics support all over the world with our pooling concepts.”
Ampaire's aircraft will entail upgrading the existing Cessna Caravan aircraft for hybrid-electric propulsion, so AFI KLM E&M could potentially be involved in modifications to incorporate the electric platform. Susan Ying, senior vice president of global partnerships at Ampaire, says the aircraft will burn 70% less fuel than the original, noting that the partnership could explore ways to use SAF to handle the remaining power.
The prototype-modified Caravan has undergone ground tests and is planned to fly by the end of 2022. It will be the first hybrid-electric aircraft to enter the certificaiton process with the FAA. Supplemental type certification of the conversion is expected in 2024.
Ampair's Eco Caravan will use Electric Power Systems' EPiC modular battery system, which offers a pack-level energy density of 200 Wh/kg and a usable life of more than 2,000 fast-charge cycles. The battery pack and electric motor are combined with a Jet A-fueled RED Aircraft A03 diesel-cycle piston engine in Ampaire's integrated parallel hybrid-electric propulsion system. The hybrid propulsion system avoids the need for ground charging infrastructure at airports.
Ying also says Ampaire is exploring potential ways to support the Eco Caravan from a maintenance perspective, highlighting AFI KLM E&M's predictive maintenance capabilities via Prognos. “Predicting what maintenance will be required will be better when we can schedule A checks, B checks and C checks,” she says.
In the area of maintenance training, Dortmans points out that AFI KLM E&M's experience leveraging augmented and virtual reality to train technicians on the Boeing 787 could come in handy. He says the technology could be used to prepare technicians to obtain required licenses to perform maintenance on electric aircraft.
On Wednesday, Oct. 19 it signed a CFM Branded Service Agreement for LEAP-1A and -1B engines, under which AFI KLM E&M will now provide full scope MRO services for global operators. The agreement was driven in part by Air France KLM's choice to purchase 200 LEAP-1A engines to power its new fleet of Airbus A320neo and A321neo aircraft earlier this year.
It announced component support agreements with two new European airlines, Aeroitalia and Norse Atlantic Airways, on Oct. 17 and Oct. 18, respectively. AFI KLM E&M will provide a range of services under the agreements, including repairs, spare parts, logistics and its Prognos predictive maintenance platform. It also announced a new component support agreement with existing customer Virgin Atlantic on Oct. 19 for the airline's 16 incoming Airbus A330neos.
In the advanced air mobility space, AFI KLM E&M signed two memoranda of understanding (MOU). The first agreement, announced Oct. 18, will see it partner with electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft manufacturer (eVTOL) Ascendance Flight Technologies to explore potential collaboration areas for its five-seat Atea aircraft, which will use distributed hybrid-electric motorization and be able to accept sustainable aviation fuel up to hydrogen. Potential cooperation will focus on areas such as line maintenance, component repair, technician training and airworthiness management.
The Atea will have a range of 400 km (250 mi.), the hybrid-electric powertrain enabling suburban and regional flights. Ascendance is developing the Sterna propulsion system, which combines a turbine engine and batteries, and looking to hydrogen as an energy source longer term. The designs features shrouded rotors, four lift fans, and separate lift and cruise propulsion to avoid having to use a tilting mechanism.
Ascendance is scheduled to fly a full-scale prototype of the Atea in 2023 and begin production in 2025. The startup plans to demonstrate the aircraft at the 2024 Paris Olympics in partnership with airport operator Groupe ADP under the Re-invent Air Mobility initiative.
The second MOU, announced Oct. 19, is with electric aircraft OEM Ampaire, which is currently certifying a nine-seat, hybrid-electric Eco Caravan that it plans to begin flying in 2024. AFI KLM E&M will explore collaboration with Ampaire in mutual interest areas that include aircraft development, maintenance training and support, and data analytics.
“At AFI KLM E&M, we have always been on the lookout for the best innovations in aviation. In particular, we are very interested in electric and hydride electric propulsion technologies, which are set to be future business drivers over the next decade,” says Géry Mortreux, executive vice president of Air France Industries. “I believe that this type of cooperation is in the general interest and is a further illustration of the general mobilization of our industry to decarbonize aviation—a collective effort in which AFI KLM E&M is of course fully involved.”
Explaining potential areas of cooperation with Ampaire, Ton Dortmans, executive vice president of KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, noted: “One of the areas is the engineering side on predictive maintenance. Another one can be our logistics support all over the world with our pooling concepts.”
Ampaire's aircraft will entail upgrading the existing Cessna Caravan aircraft for hybrid-electric propulsion, so AFI KLM E&M could potentially be involved in modifications to incorporate the electric platform. Susan Ying, senior vice president of global partnerships at Ampaire, says the aircraft will burn 70% less fuel than the original, noting that the partnership could explore ways to use SAF to handle the remaining power.
The prototype-modified Caravan has undergone ground tests and is planned to fly by the end of 2022. It will be the first hybrid-electric aircraft to enter the certificaiton process with the FAA. Supplemental type certification of the conversion is expected in 2024.
Ampair's Eco Caravan will use Electric Power Systems' EPiC modular battery system, which offers a pack-level energy density of 200 Wh/kg and a usable life of more than 2,000 fast-charge cycles. The battery pack and electric motor are combined with a Jet A-fueled RED Aircraft A03 diesel-cycle piston engine in Ampaire's integrated parallel hybrid-electric propulsion system. The hybrid propulsion system avoids the need for ground charging infrastructure at airports.
Ying also says Ampaire is exploring potential ways to support the Eco Caravan from a maintenance perspective, highlighting AFI KLM E&M's predictive maintenance capabilities via Prognos. “Predicting what maintenance will be required will be better when we can schedule A checks, B checks and C checks,” she says.
In the area of maintenance training, Dortmans points out that AFI KLM E&M's experience leveraging augmented and virtual reality to train technicians on the Boeing 787 could come in handy. He says the technology could be used to prepare technicians to obtain required licenses to perform maintenance on electric aircraft.
Share
Recent Chats
Share via email
Future: handle WhatsApp here
Future: handle LinkedIn here
Future: handle Twitter here
SUBMENU HERE
Share via Chat
Copy Link