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Aviation History
1988
1988 - 2576.PDF
Boeing investigates suspect bearing supplies Boeing is investigating alle gations that it has been supplied with counterfeit parts which were then installed on several of its commercial airliners and on the E-3 airborne early warning aircraft. The allegations concern a batch of 10,000 bearings which were sold to Boeing by a manu facturer based in Van Nuys, California. A lawsuit filed in a US district court in Los Angeles alleges that the bearings were falsely labelled with the name and trademark of another Boeing supplier, and that they were made to an inferior stan dard. The bearings were supplied to Boeing by Alliance Bearing Industries between January 1986 and February 1987, according to the lawsuit filed by the Connecticut-based Torrington company, whose Fafnir trademark was allegedly inscribed on the bearings. The company claims that, after it received an anonymous tip-off, part of Boeing's Fafnir inven tory was examined and some bearings were found to have imperfections which could cause them to rotate unevenly, crack, or even break. A court declaration by a senior buyer from Boeing's material division indicated that more than 2,000 of the allegedly counterfeit bearings were installed on commercial aircraft and Awacs surveillance aircraft, but Boeing tells Flight that it is still trying to determine where the bearings were installed. Boeing says: "We are still investigating where these things are used in our aircraft. So far, we don't think they are in 1938 YEARS 1988 STANDARD AERO ALLISON 501/T56 ENGINES Europe's Sole Distributor BSI REGISTERED STOCKIST CERTIFICATE No. RS171 ENGINES - ACCESSORIES - SPARES OVERHAUL & EXCHANGE STANDARD STANDARD AERO LTD 3 ASHFORD INDUSTRIAL ESTATE SHIELD ROAD, ASHFORD. MIDDLESEX, ENGLANDTW15 1AU .: ASHFORD, MX (0784) 246291 TELEX 8813324 FAX (0784) 248342 flight-critical areas, but it is too soon to be definite. If there are any counterfeit parts, they may not necessarily be defective, and we haven't turned up any evidence that the bearings are defective." The company adds that any necessary replacements should be possible within the normal maintenance cycles of the aircraft, and that it is keep ing its airline customers informed of the situation. Alliance Bearings is denying that it knowingly manufactured counterfeit parts, but admits that one employee, who has since been dismissed, did falsely label some bearings "without authorisation". Torrington's suit claims that Alliance had previously sold counterfeit parts supposedly made by another manufacturer, but Alliance also denies this. Wardair orders A310 simulator Wardair of Canada is to purchase a Thomson-CSF A310-300 simulator worth more than $12 million. Wardair received the first of 14 A310-300s at the end of last year. The airline is currently training pilots on a Thomson- CSF-built simulator at Airbus's training organisation in Miami. The A310 simulator will be built to FAA Phase III zero- flight-time training standards, and will have a McDonnell Douglas Vital VII visual system, the US company's new full- daylight image system. Thomson-CSF believes that the Wardair contract represents a major breakthrough into the Canadian market. It says that the contract was won against stiff opposition, not least from Canada's CAE. Hong Kong booms Hong Kong-based Cathay Pacific increased profits 26 per cent to HK$1 billion ($128 million) in the six months to the end of June. Another Swire Pacific Group company, Hong Kong Aircraft Engineering (Haeco), matched the strong performance, increasing profits 37 per cent to $15 million. Cathay's growth in the first half of this year is only about one-third of that in the first six months of 1987 when compared with 1986. For the whole of 1987 the airline earned a record HK$2 • 1 billion, 71 per cent up on 1986. The Revenue load factor increased to 73 • 5 per cent, up 2 percentage points, despite a 17 per cent increase in capacity offered. Cathay added two Lockheed TriStars and a Boeing 747-300 to its fleet. Haeco's performance was enhanced by winning additional work, despite losing a United Airlines service contract. Haeco is half owned by Cathay, and half by Cathay's parent, the Swire Pacific Group. Haeco maintains Cathay aircraft, and added the airline's three new aircraft to its work list, as well as new contracts with Air Hong Kong, Emirates Air, and some already contracted work on British Airways DC-10s. "With our high volume of business, we have been able to take advantage of the market without losing our competitive edge," says Haeco chairman Peter Sutch. SD upgrades simulator SD-Scicon is to upgrade a Fokker F.28 simulator for French regional airline TAT, under a contract worth £1 million. The upgraded simulator will meet FAA Phase II training standards. The present Redifon 2000A computer is being replaced by a Gould SelPAC 32-bit processor, and the soft ware is to be replaced. The motion and visual systems will be completely refurbished. The Rediffusion-built simu lator was originally delivered to Air Nigeria in 1981, and the refurbished machine should be ^ delivered to TAT towards the end of 1989. SD-Scicon also has a contract to supply the RAF with a data collection system for the Tucano trainer. 56 FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL, 10 September 1988
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