Flawless lifetime service records

Citation

(2006), "Flawless lifetime service records", Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology, Vol. 78 No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/aeat.2006.12778cab.011

Flawless lifetime service records

Flawless lifetime service records

Keywords: Aircraft components

A recent global competition to find the longest-serving SafTGlo floorpath marking product was won by an eight- year old installation still providing excellent service. The discovery is said to confirm that aircraft operators can look to minimise maintenance costs, maximise performance and achieve exceptional durability by fitting STG Aerospace's and floorpath marking product.

A Ryanair B737-200 shipset won the competition launched by STG in April 2005, the tenth birthday of its photoluminescent floorpath marking system. But not long after the competition closed an even older shipset sample was found, and has been shown to perform “as good as new”.

When the Ryanair aircraft retires at the end of 2005, its floorpath marking shipset installed in 1997 will have provided trouble-free and safe service for thousands of passengers over many million miles.

Mark Daly, the Ryanair avionics technical service department manager who nominated the shipset, was presented with the prize, a SafTGlo SuperSeal shipset by Doug Nowinski, sales director, STG Aerospace, on 8 December at Ryanair's offices at Stansted Airport. Mr Daly also won a digital camera for nominating the winning aircraft.

Just weeks after the competition closed, the winning Ryanair shipset was bettered by a sample from a shipset on a B757 operated by Air Greenland that was submitted to STG for routine performance testing.

The Air Greenland sample is over ten years old and has delivered over 42,000h of flawless service. It was returned to STG for testing in November 2005 and was benchmarked alongside a brand new length from the stockroom. The test results showed the two strips performed identically in emergency black-out conditions and the sample strip also looked almost brand-new in normal light. Most importantly, the B757 sample comfortably exceeded the performance levels required by the regulatory authorities.

Peter Stokes, chief executive, STG Aerospace said: “Reliability is an essential STG promise and we do all we can to ensure the continued airworthiness of our products. The Ryanair and Air Greenland shipsets show little sign of wear and tear after extended periods of gruelling service, a testament to the product design. SafTGlo reduces MRO costs from the moment of installation and these two examples prove once again that our customers can be assured of excellent durability and continued cost minimisation in the very long term.”

The aircraft cabin is an uncontrolled environment and STG believes it is unique in offering tri-annual laboratory performance tests to demonstrate continued airworthiness. The Air Greenland sample was part of one of the very first SafTGlo shipsets to have been produced.

In April 1995, STG Aerospace filed, and was subsequently awarded, patents for its aviation “photoluminescent” (PL) technology. STG Aerospace holds multiple FAA and EASA STC's for PL products in aircraft cabins, and is unique in holding FAA approvals for all aircraft types.

The range of SafTGlo products is in active service in thousands of aircraft for hundreds of airlines around the world.

STG Aerospace was established in 1995 to exploit its novel and alternative technologies that provide simple and cost effective solutions for safety critical applications in commercial and military aircraft. The company's unique PL systems “store” and simultaneously emit light giving highly visible emergency exit guidance for up to 16h in darkness, after a short period of “charging” with normal cabin lighting.

STG Aerospace is always striving to produce innovative solutions for cabin safety and aims to cut the amount of hardwired electrical safety systems on aeroplanes.

Details available from: STG Aerospace, web site: www.stgaerospace.com