Press Release

Issued by .

July 13, 2011

Associated Air Center, StandardAero's Large Transport Category, VIP Aircraft Completions Center in Dallas, Texas, announced today that it has developed a full scale airframe mockup center used for creating and testing new designs, fabrications and systems on Boeing Business Jets (BBJ). The re-engineered facility now offers full scale fit capabilities on the BBJ while continuing to support designs on the Airbus Corporate Jet (ACJ).

The airframe mockup allows AAC to reduce aircraft down time by starting key elements of the completion process before the customer's aircraft arrives at the AAC facility. The tool supports the 737NG family of aircrafts (BBJ/-700IGW, BBJ-2/-800ER and –BBJ-3/-900ER). There also is a project currently underway now to develop the same capability for the ACJ series of aircrafts (A-318CJ, A-319CJ, A-320CJ and A-321CJ).

"The re-engineering of the mockup facility provides substantial improvement in our quality outcomes and is expected to significantly improve our turn times, reducing aircraft downtime by as much as 10 percent," said Troy Jonas, Vice President & General Manager, Associated Air Center. "This is a new piece of tooling for AAC. The investment we've chosen to make underscores our commitment to the customer to reduce aircraft turn time and reflects a significant investment in our future to continue to provide large transport VIP owners a quality and convenient completions center alternative.

Earlier this year, AAC delivered its twenty-first BBJ aircraft cabin completion since 1998, when becoming a BBJ Approved Completion and Service Center, making it the industry leader in VIP completions.