Associated Air Center develops mockup facility for BBJ completions
Company now has full scale mockup for BBJ and is developing similar facility for ACJ
Associated Air
Center, StandardAero’s large transport
category, VIP aircraft completions centre in Dallas has announced that it has developed a
full scale airframe mockup centre used for creating and testing new designs,
fabrications and systems on Boeing Business Jets (BBJ). The re-engineered
facility now offers full scale fit capabilities on the BBJ while continuing to
support designs on the Airbus Corporate Jet (ACJ).
The airframe mockup allows the company to
reduce aircraft down time by starting key elements of the completion process
before the customer’s aircraft arrives at the facility. The tool supports the
737NG family of aircrafts (BBJ/-700IGW, BBJ-2/-800ER and -BBJ-3/-900ER). There
also is a project currently underway now to develop the same capability for the
ACJ series of aircraft (A-318CJ, A-319CJ, A-320CJ and A-321CJ).
“The re-engineering of the mockup facility
provides substantial improvement in our quality outcomes and is expected to
significantly improve our turn times, reducing aircraft downtime by as much as
10 percent,” said Troy Jonas, vice president and general manager, Associated Air Center.
“This is a new piece of tooling for AAC. The investment we’ve chosen to make
underscores our commitment to the customer to reduce aircraft turn time and
reflects a significant investment in our future to continue to provide large
transport VIP owners a quality and convenient completions center alternative.
Earlier this year, the company delivered its
twenty-first BBJ aircraft cabin completion since 1998.
