Cargo Conversions, a San Francisco-based Boeing 747 conversion specialist, has teamed with Israel Aircraft Industries (IAI) to market 747-100/200 freighter conversions, using a TRW-built kit and a supplemental type certificate (STC) held by the Israeli company.
"We will take kits from TRW, built in accordance with the IAI design, and install them either at IAI or at approved facilities around the world," says Cargo Conversions president Rick Hatton. IAI was the third company to obtain a 747 freighter conversion STC, after Boeing and GATX Airlog, and the first other than Boeing to develop a conversion design using a finite element structural model.
GATX later contracted IAI to evaluate its conversion work after the US Federal Aviation Administration issued an airworthiness directive on modifications performed by the US company on ten 747-100s. One of these aircraft has since returned to full service, says Hatton, a former president of GATX. "I bought all the assets from GATX - which has nothing to do with Cargo Conversions, " he says. He says the new programme is "fully certified, available for -200 passenger and combi conversions".
The programme builds on a partnership established last year between Cargo Conversions and Lucas Aerospace, now TRW Aeronautical Systems, to provide conversion kits.
Source: Flight International
