Reusing airframes and furnishings to reduce pollution and cost.

Every year a lot of aircraft get retired from service, in other words scrapped.  Many of the parts are removed and overhauled to go back into service, such as avionics, engines and hydraulic components.  The airframe is generally recycled, but often by shipping it offshore where the pollution controls are far less stringent.  However, one of the largest chunks of the aircraft, its interior and furnishings, are "disposed of" in the least costly manner available.

Why not just use these parts for cabin training equipment, or for that matter, a major part of the whole aircraft?

Well, in the past some people have, but it is not that easy.  Firstly the parts are not designed for the rigours of training: they break easily.  Secondly they do not provide the sophistication required for training: they don't simulate malfunctions and conditions such as door jams.  Thirdly they often do not represent the configuration of current aircraft in service: designs change even with the same models.  And fourthly it has been more costly to provide the same performance than when designing from scratch.

That is until recently........

Through a series of fortuitous events, a very cooperative and flexible customer, and an awful lot of innovation, we were able to reuse a major portion of two B737 aircraft to produce a first-class cabin simulator for Alaska Airlines.

It all started out like this.........

                                                          ... and to see the end result, click here.

Some time ago we took on the task of recycling a Boeing 737 airframe into a cabin simulator (Cabin Emergency Evacuation Trainer) ....... 

     

A local company that caters to the aircraft simulation market received a unique delivery earlier this week.

by Matthew Claxton (www.langleyadvance.com)
 
     

Some Langley residents might have been surprised on Tuesday to see a full-sized BOEING 737 jetliner being hauled through the City. 

The white fuselage of the old Air Canada jet had been sliced into several chunks, and the wings and tail removed before the trip north from a storage yard in California.

While it looks like something destined for the scrap yard, the jet will have new life after being refurbished by a local company.

It was taken to Ashford Technologies, a local firm that has been quietly carving out a place for itself as the only Canadian maker of aircraft simulators.

"It's a very specialized niche market," said company president Robert Earp.

Ashford Technologies, in business in Langley since 1989, is one of just four firms in the world that build large-scale simulators used to train flight crews for emergencies.

"It is a complete replica of an aircraft that is controllable by an instructor," Earp said.

When the cabin crew on an airline show the passengers were the emergency exits are, how the oxygen masks work and how to prepare for a crash landing, they learned on a simulator.

Earp and his crew of aircraft specialists rebuild their discarded jets exactly as a real aircraft would be rebuilt, using surplus or handmade parts, but they add a number of special effects devices as well.

The windows of the BOEING 737 will be replaced with special screens and lights that can simulate the colours of a daytime or nighttime sky, the blue-green of a water landing, or the glare of a fire.

Stage smoke machines will be concealed within the hull, and a tester will be able to release large or small amounts of smoke in any part of the cabin.

The instructors controlling the simulations will also have the ability to create a wide variety of problems during the training runs, Earp said.

They will be able to force a door to jam, prevent an emergency exit slide from automatically inflating, and kill the lights.

To add one final bit of verisimilitude, the purchasers of the simulator are considering having it mounted on a moving platform.

Aircraft in the real world, especially ones during emergencies, don't sit still, Earp noted. If the aircraft can tilt to one side, it makes it harder to open some doors and to move around, and training for those problems are helpful.

Almost every country around the world has regulations that make sure flight crews are trained for such problems, which means there is a diverse market for a wide variety of simulators.

The current project is destined for Seattle, where it will serve employees of Alaska Airlines, Earp said. It is one of a string of large simulators the firm has built for major companies like Boeing and British Airways.

But Earp is very proud of a much smaller simulator - just a door, a few windows and part of a fuselage - his team just built for Air Fiji.

Earp delivered the finished product himself. Because Air Fiji didn't have a permanent building large enough to hold the trainer, Earp's crew built it into a shipping container.

Working with small companies like Air Fiji is rewarding for Earp.

For the same reason, he has kept the business in Langley since it was formed in 1989. He feels the community is appealing for small businesses like his.

"Everybody seems to help everybody else out," Earp said.

The proximity to the Langley airport and a large number of small manufacturing and fabricating shops has been invaluable.

The current project will be finished by sometime in September, assuming Alaska Airlines can find a proper building to house the 55 foot long creation by that time, Earp said.

It will be disassembled and moved in pieces across the border, probably by the same firm that brought it to Canada this week.

Anything to Anywhere is a company founded in Langley that specializes in moving unusual cargo - everything from jet aircraft to horses.