MRO: The flightdeck refurbishment market for older Boeings is set to boom

Pennsylvania-based Innovative Solutions & Support (IS&S) is positioning itself to be a major player in what it hopes could soon be a bullish refurbishment market for the cockpits on thousands of ageing Boeing 737, 747s, 757s and 767s, as well as McDonnell Douglas DC-10s.

IS&S holds supplemental type certificates for flat-panel upgrades of the 757 and 767 flight and navigation displays. The new equipment replaces existing cathode ray-tube electronic flight information systems and reduces line-replacable unit counts by about 70%. Chief competitors in the field are CMC Electronics, which has completed more than 500 commercial airliner cockpit upgrades to date, and Universal Avionics.

Upgrade potential

While IS&S has completed relatively few commercial airliner cockpit refurbishments to date, the company sees much potential just over the horizon. "We're talking with every 757 and 767 operator who's willing to talk," says Mike Glover, flat-panel programme manager for IS&S. The company estimates there are 700 767s and 2,000 757s that are in need of a cockpit upgrade.

IS&S has completed upgrades on several VIP 757s and 767s as well as 10 767 freighters in partnership with cargo airline ABX Air, according to Glover. ABX has also purchased 12 767-200s from Delta Air Lines for conversion to freighters with the IS&S cockpit.

An optional Class 3 integrated electronic flight bag, available on all IS&S panel upgrades, brings additional capabilities including "own-ship" position on Jeppesen electronic charts and airport diagrams, satellite weather, checklists and, potentially, synthetic vision.

In the works are STCs for cockpit upgrades for the Boeing 737-300/400/500 and flat-panel engine displays for the Boeing 747-100/200, a makeover that will remove 45 analogue instruments from the panel. The company is also developing a single 10in (255mm) flat-panel engine indicating and crew alerting system display to replace two smaller CRT displays in the 757 and 767.

IS&S is expecting US certification in the third quarter of this year for the engine instrument display system on the 747-100/200. Launch customer Kalitta Air is installing the $100,000 kit in 17 747s. The upgrade includes two 6 x 8in active-matrix liquid crystal displays (AMLCD), a standby engine instrument, display control unit and two engine data concentrator units.

Launch customer for the 737 panel upgrade, now under development, is leasing company Jet Partners, with 30 firm orders and 30 options. The kit will take between five and seven days to install, says the company, and will include five AMLCDs, two control units an three data concentrators, replacing 65 units and saving 70kg (150lb).

Cost for a 767 cockpit upgrade, available on all variants of the twin-engined widebody, is $280,000-300,000, including all aircraft components, installation kit, engineering and "touch labour," says IS&S. The company also offers a "part and paper" kit for customers who want to modify their own aircraft. Downtime has been reduced to three to four days, but the company has done installations in as little as 48h, says Glover.

The new four-AMLCD instrument suite saves 100kg and reduces the number of individual hardware items by 24. IS&S has engineered the replacement hardware in the electronics bay to mimic the heritage equipment, to minimise out-of-service time, including data concentrator units that take the place of the original symbol generators. The 757-200 cockpit upgrade is similar, but takes somewhat less time to install, says Glover.

Condensed training

Glover says pilots can learn to fly the new 757 and 767 cockpits in as little as half a day with IS&S's FAA-approved condensed training course, despite a significant difference in layout between the new and old panels.

While heritage 757s and 767s have electronic attitude indicator and horizontal situation displays, many of the supporting airspeed, altitude and vertical speed instrument are the traditional "steam gauge" variety.

Familiarisation with the all-glass representation is rapid, however, and requires only 2.5h of ground school, 1h of computer-based training and initial operating flight time with a check pilot. Glover says ABX has already trained pilots with the curriculum.

Source: Flight International