TFE731 Aboard at StandardAero’s Fleetlands Facility

Anchors Aweigh! TFE731 aboard at StandardAero’s Fleetlands facility.

StandardAero’s Fleetlands facility is located near Portsmouth on England’s southern coast, an area steeped in British Naval history. It therefore seemed appropriate to lend some naval phraseology to officially launch the new home of the TFE731 in Europe. It’s also worth mentioning that Fleetlands still has its own jetty.

Opened in 1940, as the Royal Naval Air Yard, Fleetlands initially dealt with the repair and overhaul of naval aircraft – many of which were shipped to the facility via the jetty by boat. Over time, Fleetlands gradually became more renowned for its helicopter work as the numbers of them in UK Fleet Air Arm service increased. In April 1999, the Defence Aviation Repair Agency was formed to take over work for all three services and RNAY Fleetlands became DARA Fleetlands, dealing with Army, Royal Air Force and Royal Navy aircraft including Chinook, Lynx and Sea King helicopters. In February 2008, the DARA Rotary Wing maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) facility at Fleetlands was acquired by Vector Aerospace.

StandardAero recently acquired the Vector Aerospace facility at Fleetlands as part of its global growth strategy. This acquisition will allow StandardAero to expand its European footprint and capability to better support its growing European Middle East Asia and Africa customer base. By combining StandardAero’s proven track record of innovation and their customer centric vision with Fleetlands history of service quality and high expertise, StandardAero has created an MRO center of excellence for Europe. Customers across Europe will benefit from a much-improved integrated MRO solution with shorter turnaround times and a simpler logistics process.

This unique blend of innovation and excellence is one of the reasons why StandardAero has been appointed as the exclusive major maintenance repair and overhaul service center for the Honeywell TFE731 family of turbofan engines in Europe. StandardAero is licensed to perform both Core Zone Inspections (CZIs) and MSP covered Major Periodic Inspections (MPIs).

The TFE731 engine, first certified in 1972, is one of Honeywell’s most successful engines. Some 20 different engine variants with more than 13,000 units have been produced, logging an astounding 100 million plus hours of service. The engine is found on more than 30 different platforms including Dassault Falcon, Hawker, Cessna and LearJet aircraft. StandardAero has over 40 years’ experience with the TFE731 and has performed more than 20,000 TFE731 MPI & CZI engine maintenance events.

StandardAero is also certified for the Honeywell ALF502 and LF507 engines. The ALF 502 was certified in 1980, and used on the British Aerospace 146 and Bombardier Challenger 600. The improved, higher-thrust Honeywell LF 507 was used on the Avro RJ update of the BAe 146.

For more information on StandardAero’s Fleetlands facility and their TFE731 capabilities, please visit http://www.standardaero.com/.