SIKA Aerospace & Defence, India (SIKA) and UK landing gear MRO specialist Aerotek Aviation have announced the launch of Aerotek Sika Aviation Engineering — a Bangalore-based joint venture to provide world-class manufacturing and maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) of Landing Gear, Hydraulic LRUs and Actuators for fixed and rotary wing aircraft.
Located within SIKA’s 6.5 acre campus in Bangalore, the Aerotek Sika facility, the distinction of being the first of its kind in the private sector in India, is capable of handling all types of landing gear manufacturing and MRO for helicopters and aircraft, from trainer aircraft and UAVs up to narrow body airliners.
Aerotek Sika (Stand 3.1R in Hall AB) has been established from day one as a mirror site—both in terms of facilities and processes—to the Aerotek UK plant in England, in line with international standards.
Having focused initially on military customers, Aerotek Sika has over the course of the last few months been audited and approved by the Indian Ministry of Defence’s Center for Military Airworthiness & Certification (CEMILAC) for “Manufacturing, Assembly, Testing, MRO of Landing Gear, Hydraulic LRUs and Actuators,” as well as by various divisions of Hindustan Aeronautics Limited.
The company has secured a launch order for the manufacture, assembly and testing of a number of shipsets of an unspecified “6.5t fixed wing aircraft”. The company has also secured a separate contract for the design, development, qualification and certification of the landing gear retraction actuator for a “2t medium-altitude long-endurance unmanned aerial vehicle”, which has already completed the critical design review milestone and commenced prototype manufacturing.
Aerotek Sika aims to expand its manufacturing and MRO activities for Indian customers, for which it offers foreign exchange savings and reduced turnaround times (TATs). In addition, the company is also seeking alliances with global original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to enable the latter to provide Indian customers with localised support for their landing gear resulting in faster TATs and optimised costs. The company notes that OEMs can use such alliances to satisfy offset obligations with respect to both manufacture and MRO of landing gears.
In support of its vision to service a global customer base, Aerotek Sika has initiated the certification process required for civil/commercial MRO, and is working towards obtaining Part 145 approvals by the end of 2017 from the Director General of Civil Aviation (India), EASA and the FAA.