SPARES SUPPORT OF YOUR ROTARY-WING JENNY

Spares support of an aging military and commercial helicopter fleet with high-time aircraft that have been out of production for over 20 years requires a great deal of effort. Several of the helicopters flying have over 30,000 airframe hours and are older than the pilots that fly them. Many original vendors are out of business or have been sold and are no longer interested in small quantity orders. Many vendors that are still in business have tools that are out of date or may have scrapped the original tool. The age and time on these helicopters now require replacement of parts that have never been ordered as a spare before. Further, the number of overhaul and repair cycles on major components have taken their toll and now require replacement of housings and other parts that were not considered to be spare parts during the original life cycle projection. The financial impact of small quantity procurement on the commercial and international military customer with small fleets has to be considered. New ideas and philosophies must be developed to deal with aircraft that have operated for 30 years and are programmed to operate into the year 2010 and beyond. This paper is submitted to share some ideas that should be considered by all who are directly responsible for keeping such aircraft operational and profitable for the customer.