Canadian completions specialist Flying Colours comes to NBAA confident that it can take up any challenge thrown at it by aircraft owners.
The company, which was one of the first to enter the completions market more than 20 years ago, has installed its first real stone floor on a Global 5000 aircraft for an Asian customer.
The ability to take on individual demands for VIPs has seen Flying Colors develop a reputation for work on green Challenger 850s, to create VIP conversions to the 850's airframe the Bombardier CRJ200 50-seater regional jet.
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© Flying Colours Aviation |
"We work in green completions, interior refurbishment, maintenance, component services, VIP conversions, exterior paint, and avionics installation & upgrade," explains Eric Gillespie, director, completion sales and management. Through its work on CRJ conversions the company found itself in a good place to compete for green 850 work and it is soon to deliver three green Bombardier Challenger 850s to China, along with one to India, and another to Russia.
The company also works on more unique requests. But few have matched the challenge of a stone floor requested for a Bombardier Global 5000. "The Global 5000 was flown from the Bombardier Global Completion Center in Montreal to Flying Colours for the modification," says Gillespie. "The stone floor itself was manufactured by The List Components & Furniture company of Germany and was installed in the entry/galley area and forward lavatory area of the Global 5000.
"This is a new and cutting edge process which sees the granite get cut into 2.5mm slices and attached to a lightweight backplate, which gives it high elasticity without losing the necessary floor-loading requirements.
"The floor is custom engineered to fit a specific area and sealed to prevent liquids from penetrating the stone. It added approximately 55lbs additional weight when compared to the carpet," Gillespie says.
The manufacturing process took the company four weeks to complete and the installation and certification time two weeks. "Our clients have been asking about this type of option for several years now but it had not been perfected to the point where it made sense from a certification and weight standpoint," adds Gillespie.
"Stone Floor" was a new challenge for the company to take on but clearly not an unreasonable request. "We can take on any viable challenges really," says Gillespie. "However, our most popular request from customers is in-flight wi-fi and broadband connectivity. Our customers want to be able to connect to the internet while flying and we are accommodating them in this request."
Flying Colours can accommodate 12-14 green completions annually with another 30-40 refurbishment projects that are spread across the various services that offer including paint, interior refurbishment, avionics upgrade, and maintenance.
The company has its own in-house designer that works closely with clients to make sure they receive the perfect completion to which they require.
Source: Flight Daily News
