TAG Fleet Online is First to Streamline Critical Influence Parts Tracking for GE and CFMI Engines

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

MEDIA CONTACT:

Walter Andrushenko

The Aircraft Group

Office: 602-244-1500

wally@theaircraftgroup.com

www.theaircraftgroup.aero

The Aircraft Group’s TAG Fleet Online is First to Streamline Critical Influence Parts Tracking for GE and CFMI Engines

Phoenix, Arizona – January 7, 2013 – The Aircraft Group’s TAG Fleet Online system offers an immediate solution for the management of Critical Influencing Parts and DER repairs for GE and CFMI manufactured engines. Building on its existing GE TRUEngine program contract, TAG Fleet Online, the preeminent aircraft and engine portfolio management product, is now able to automate the identification of unknown PMA parts and DER engine repairs, streamlining the labor-intensive process and automating ongoing engine records management. Recently, GE emphasized the significance of Critical Influencing Parts on GE/CFMI products announcing that the company cannot support, evaluate, or maintain parts that were not manufactured by GE. Verification of critical engine part history is now required placing a tremendous administrative burden on the aviation industry. The Aircraft Group, as a veteran in the aviation industry and specialists in aircraft portfolio management, has an immediate solution with its TAG Fleet Online product.

As a web-based solution, TAG Fleet Online can identify, track, and report an entire historical trail on engine repairs and parts in a matter of minutes, anywhere in the world. “The Aircraft Group has been specializing in aircraft portfolio management for more than 20 years. Providing immediate access to engine parts data is part of our core business so offering more in-depth information instantaneously is a natural progression,” says Walter Andrushenko, president of The Aircraft Group. “We have seen the entire industry moving in this direction and have been preparing for it for some time.” The Aircraft Group sees GE’s request for engine verification extending to other manufacturers in the near future.

As the complexity of propulsion manufacturing has increased, reliability on all parts, LLPs and Critical Influencing Parts, has become more critical. According to GE, the impact of PMA parts and DER repairs may inadvertently cause premature failure in some Life-Limited Parts (LLP). Recognizing this, GE is the first to implement the need to verify and track all Critical Influencing Parts that are, and have been, associated with an LLP during its period of use.

GE has established a comprehensive database identifying the LLPs along with hundreds of critical parts associated with them. Although this database is meant to assist in engine verification, reviewing historical engine repairs and tracking LLPs and all associated Critical Influencing Parts is a monumental task. Just tracing one LLP for an example, a T1 disk, results in 285 associated Critical Parts and that is with a single shop visit. If that extends to additional shop visits and 20 or more LLPs, the task increases exponentially. Standard solutions to complete this task would take weeks or more to complete. With TAG Fleet Online, the project can be completed in a few hours or less per engine.

TAG Fleet Online is able to provide detailed documentation and records management of engine repairs throughout its lifecycle, as well as each of the LLPs and associated Critical parts. Currently, The Aircraft Group is identifying PMA/DER parts and repairs through GE’s TRUEngine program contract. The Aircraft Group is now expanding on this process to filter those findings to match Critical Influencing Parts to their respective LLPs. The Company’s goal is to allow for automated searches that will match any PMA findings to a specific part within an engine followed by ALL previous shop visits creating a complete historical trail for the engine and its integral parts. With TAG Fleet Online a manual task that would take weeks can be done in a matter of hours with more accuracy and ongoing efficiencies.

The Aircraft Group

With more than 20 years in business, The Aircraft Group has revolutionized aircraft/engine portfolio management with its patented product TAG Fleet Online, the only Internet-based aircraft portfolio management system of its kind. Headquartered in Phoenix, The Aircraft Group manages global projects specializing in asset and technical management for the aviation trading community. To date, the Aircraft Group has assisted more than 80 airlines, 65 financial institutions in 35 countries throughout North America, South America, Europe and Asia. For more information, visit www.theaircraftgroup.aero.

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CFM Contracts with The Aircraft Group for Engine Records Verification

CFM Expands TRUEngine Program with Unique Content Assurance Guarantee for Subsequent Buyers

 • Contracts with The Aircraft Group for engine records verification 

WEST CHESTER, Ohio – 10 September 2012 — CFM International has continued to evolve its highly successful TRUEngine program by most recently creating a unique Content Assurance Guarantee (CAG) for subsequent buyers of qualified CFM56 engines.

The CAG was launched in response to customer requests for more assurance of asset value upon the sale of a qualified CFM56 engine. With this guarantee, customers who purchase a qualified CFM56 engine are entitled to a 50 percent credit on replacement parts if, at the first shop visit after transfer of ownership, any parts or repairs found in the engine are not original CFM parts or CFM-authorized repairs.

“We have had great success with the TRUEngine program since we launched it and the CAG is a great example of how customers have worked with us to make the program even better,” said Jean-Paul Ebanga, president and CEO of CFM International. “This guarantee gives customers added peace of mind that, when they purchase a used CFM56 engine qualified for TRUEngine status, it will contain only original CFM parts and repairs. If it doesn't, CFM will help them bring that asset up to TRUEngine standards.”

In addition to launching the CAG, CFM has also contracted with The Aircraft Group to validate submitted engine records as part of the TRUEngine qualification process. To qualify, a customer submits engine serial numbers, along with the required maintenance records to substantiate that the engine content, overhaul practices, and repairs are consistent with CFM recommendations for that engine model. The Aircraft Group will streamline the evaluation process and improve the reliability of information through its proprietary TAG Fleet Online software.

“We like the idea of bringing another expert into the qualification process,” said Ebanga. “Not only does it help us keep pace with demand, but it also brings another level of expertise to the process. The Aircraft Group is highly respected in the industry and brings more than 20 years of engine evaluation experience to the TRUEngine qualification process.”

The TRUEngine designation serves as a method for identifying engines with CFM-approved content and facilitates product support of the engine system. Moreover, industry stakeholders can use the knowledge of engine content to evaluate engine value and re-marketability.

The TRUEngine program has continued to achieve broad-based industry acceptance. Currently, more than 7,300 of the nearly 18,000 CFM56 engines in service have been qualified for the TRUEngine program with nearly 75 operators worldwide.

Experience Counts

With some 100 American aircraft under our belt, TAG has the knowledge, expertise and wherewithal to handle physical inspections, records inspections, bankruptcy records evaluations, pre-purchase inspections, lease returns, ferry flights, aircraft status reviews, updating of specs & disks, litigation, and export C of A's. Contact us today to discuss what can we do for you.

Spotlight on The Aircraft Group Services

One of the key services The Aircraft Group offers is the preparation of basic aircraft specifications, airframe maintenance status and accident/incident reports. If you're looking for a status on an American Airlines 757 or 767, Contact us today!

Navigating the American Bankruptcy

With American Airlines filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on November 29, 2011, thoughts immediately turn to wading through the records and assets of such a large company. This is where The Aircraft Group (TAG) comes in.

TAG has been involved in every major airline bankruptcy over the past 25 years and we are recognized as being the very best at it. During the Delta filing, The Aircraft Group was able to post and distribute technical data on 184 aircraft, specs and historical information in less than a week, 100% searchable! We have proven time and again that we have the ability to effectively manage, analyze and distribute technical data over the web for thousands of aircraft simultaneously.

Plus, we have worked with American Airline’s maintenance and recordkeeping systems for the past two decades. We are familiar with their processes, procedures and recordkeeping. In fact, we currently are working for several lessors and note holders and already have clearance for access to AA facilities.

Our vast airline expertise and specialized products make us the perfect solution. TAG’s patented products, TAG Fleet Online and DocuSearch, allow users to access aircraft portfolios over the Internet from anywhere in the world. While TAG’s document retrieval software is the only leading document management product designed specifically for aircraft maintenance records and is fully searchable returning documents in seconds given any search parameters.

If help is needed navigating through the AA bankruptcy waters, contact The Aircraft Group for information on our products and services.

TAG Fleet Online Version 3

TAG Fleet Online Version 3 is currently in BETA testing phase and will be made available in late November.

Here are some of the most important features of our new and improved system where we have taken into consideration what we have learned during many years of experience in the industry.

• Redesigned user interface that improves ease of use combined with a set of new tools that dramatically speed up research, maintenance and administration tasks.

1. Aircraft Portfolio
1.1 Ability to see a snapshot of the documents based on serial number just by looking at the spec-sheet of the Aircraft*
1.2 Lockdown Aircraft (aircraft information becomes read-only) **

2. User Management
2.1 Simplified user management interface with hierarchical permissions assignment.
Users with ability to create other users can only transfer permissions assigned to them.
In other words, you have a more granular level of control to restrict access to sensitive information of all your assets.

3. Engine Portfolio
3.1 This new module allows clients to manage stand-alone engines as separate entities.
3.2 Lockdown Engine (Same as 1.2 but in regards to stand-alone engines)

4. Document Archive
4.1 You can search across hundreds of thousands of documents using our patented index and storage search engine and get results in a matter of seconds.
No need for special indexes or constraints just accurate results.
4.2 Ability to run searches within multiple aircraft or engines.
4.3 Save your search results!
Let’s suppose you’re in the middle of something browsing hundreds of documents for one aircraft or engine. You can save your search results and go back to them later.


• Compatible with all modern browsers (Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Opera, Safari)

• Developed using cutting edge technology that ensures reliability, scalability, security and performance.

• 100% compatible with the previous version. All existing aircraft and engine portfolio information for current clients is available in the new system.

*Subject to availability of the documents
**Requires users with special permissions to lock/unlock and view

New FAR Coming Soon

A new development aircraft owners should be aware of is a new FAR expected to become effective in early 2011. Designated as FAR 121.1115 it will effectively establish a life limit on airframes. To protect against widespread fatigue damage, once the threshold is reached, the subject aircraft will either have to be permanently removed from service or undergo extensive structural modifications. In the case of the 757, the limit, called a Limit of Validity (LOV), is 50,000 flight cycles and comes into effect 60 months after publication of the FAR. The LOV will vary from model to model. The Aircraft Group can help you ascertain the specifics for your aircraft.