Platform Capabilities: Civil:
Solutions: Aircraft Upgrades Derco has extensive experience in provided parts, kitting, component overhaul and repair, training, sales, maintenance, and has completed more than 40 avionic upgrades and aircraft modifications for its customers. Derco is an experienced world leader in design, development, and integration of military and commercial electronics for aerospace applications. For more than 25 years, Derco has had long-standing relationships with fleet operators in more than 65 countries. Not only does Derco understand the aircraft and how to support it better than any other group of companies, Derco has effective systems and processes in place to ensure conformance to all quality standards, contract requirements, delivery milestones, and regulatory issues providing operations ready aircraft.
Derco provides:
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Installation kit design and manufacture (A kits)
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Volume equipment procurement (B kits) in accordance with OEM data and approved engineering drawings to reduce risk of non-conformance and non-performance
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On-site engineering liaison support
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Aircraft installation/modification teams on site to provide real-time visibility and transparency of all installation activities and facilitates technology transfer
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Program management/integrated product teams
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Flight/ground test and certification support
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Flight crew and maintenance technician training
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OEM alliances for follow-up support
Derco has an extensive history of developing modular avionics systems specifically for aircraft used in the role of civil and military transport, maritime patrol and search and rescue. These systems are based on integrated commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) subsystems available from Derco. These subsystems, when integrated together into a cohesive operating system, can provide aircraft with highly advanced systems capable of a multitude of functions.
Why Upgrade? Obsolescence
Derco manages obsolescence through effective management and monitoring of supply chain alternatives. The objective of Obsolescence Management is to ensure that obsolescence is managed as an integral part of design, development, production, and in-service support in order to minimize its cost and impact over the whole equipment life cycle.
Operational Requirements
Regulatory requirements are constantly changing causing impact on the legacy components installed on older aircraft. Taken on a “one off” basis, component upgrades can wreak havoc on schedules, consume operating budgets and be time consuming. With Derco’s worldwide customer base, each customer gains the advantage of Derco’s unified buying and production-like scheduling to minimize the negative impact of upgrade requirements.
Service Bulletin Compliance
Service Bulletins are rarely released at opportune times and advance notice is rare. However, because of Derco’s numerous OEM relationships, we are often enlisted by OEMs to become a part of the SB solution. This allows Derco to plan the SB response and implement the compliance requirements, parts, tooling, publications, etc., before release, thereby having the parts, repair production capacity and other logistic elements in place and ready for rapid response for our customers. The net result for our customers is lower costs, less schedule interruption and increased availability. Additionally, Derco has the further capability to analyze the customer’s current configuration and provide combined upgrade and compliance evolutions that further minimize the impact on life cycle costs.
Maintenance
Improvements in aircraft avionics design and manufacturing have put emphasis on reducing aircraft downtime and lowering maintenance cost. Today, electronics are built with internal test features and have significantly higher Mean Time Between Failures (MTBF) Rates. In most cases, newer installations also have a reduced number of LRUs and also a significant reduction of electrical wiring. Each of these elements has a positive impact of fleet operational availability and lower life cycle costs.
Avionics
All avionics programs proposed by Derco are state-of-the-art, off-the-shelf systems that are in production for advanced aircraft programs throughout the world. With Derco’s extensive in-house engineering capability, Derco is able to blend various COTS systems into an integrated suite. Derco’s military avionics program experience allows Derco to provide similar capabilities to its commercial customers worldwide. During each of Derco’s accomplished Military programs, Derco has either performed the upgrade in-house or teamed with various installation facilities to provide the most efficient method for the upgrade/modification of the aircraft involved. By teaming with different installation facilities, Derco is able to accomplish the modification close to the customer’s location and provide the technical capabilities to the host installation facility to allow it to accomplish future aircraft modifications.
Test Equipment Derco Repair’s test equipment is designed to simulate the most rigorous and extreme flight operating simulation to ensure components are properly installed on the aircraft, meet quality assurance measurements, and meet testing specifications. Derco Repair’s highly qualified engineering staff also has the capability to design and produce test equipment to support operators’ flight lines and intermediate level test requirements.
Derco has a diversified portfolio of aircraft modification and upgrade program successes. For more information, please contact: General Repair
