DC Aviation is launching a new wheel shop at its maintenance centre at Stuttgart airport in Germany. Its services will now include the repair and maintenance of main landing gear wheels and nose gear wheels.

In the near future, DC will be in a position to perform maintenance work in the new wheel shop on the wheels of larger business jets. It already obtained C14 approval for repair and maintenance of main gear and nose gear wheels in 2017. Currently, these types of services are performed for the Cessna Citation XLS, Bombardier Challenger 300/604/605/850, Bombardier Global 5000 and Gulfstream G650. The company plans to further expand these services.

To this end, DC Aviation has enlarged the capacity of the existing wheel shop and invested in the latest equipment. The floor of the new 77 sqm area has been sealed with high-gloss epoxy sealer. The cutting-edge equipment includes two bead breakers to detach the rubber from rims of various sizes, a hydraulic lift for more ergonomic and effective work around the wheel, a rim washing machine and a sand blasting cabin for preparing wheels for the detection of cracks.

DC's VP of maintenance and CAMO Jürgen Sehne states: “The wheel shop expansion is an ideal complement to our maintenance service portfolio. By performing repair and maintenance work on wheels in-house, our customers can optimise aircraft idle times and save costs.”

Due to their exposure to high stress and their critical role for flight operation safety, aircraft wheels require significant maintenance work. In the DC Aviation wheel shop, each wheel passes through numerous stations until it is re-certified with a new EASA Form 1 after rigorous final control. In the future, DC plans to offer these services for other aircraft types.