Concorde refurbishment

Citation

(1999), "Concorde refurbishment", Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology, Vol. 71 No. 4. https://doi.org/10.1108/aeat.1999.12771daf.003

Concorde refurbishment

Concorde refurbishment

Keywords: Aircraft, Brookhouse, British Aerospace, Refurbishment

Brookhouse Composites Ltd, of Darwen, is helping British Aerospace, Customer Support, of Filton, in the refurbishment of an Air France Concorde by manufacturing tooling and producing composite flying parts. The work is being carried out on behalf of AÅrospatiale, who are carrying out the actual re-build in France.

Concordes have been flying for over 25 years but the demand for supersonic travel has recently grown rapidly. To meet this demand, Air France are now bringing one of their original Concordes, which has had relatively few flying hours, back into service. However, this aircraft has been virtually kept in storage for some time and has been used, mainly, as a source of spare parts. Consequently, a major part of the refurbishment operation has involved re-manufacturing some of the original parts and this required the creation of new tooling.

To meet this need, British Aerospace Customer Support, which supplies all spare parts for Concorde, contacted Brookhouse, because of the Darwen company's worldwide reputation in this field and its proven capability to meet stringent lead times and because Brookhouse already have the necessary aerospace industry approvals in place.

The manufacture of the new tools has involved working from the original drawings and often entails substituting new composite materials for outdated materials, according to the specification of the design authority at Filton. The tools are being produced in-house at Brookhouse Patterns in Darwen, using state-of-the-art CNC machining facilities and high precision inspection equipment. They are then used by Brookhouse Composites, on the same site, to produce the composite components, ranging from interior panels to structural skins. Brookhouse Composites specialises in the manufacture and repair of composite components and offers large and small autoclaves and extensive cleanroom facilities to provide the capability to handle large and complex assemblies, as well as minor details and small components.

All aspects of production are controlled by extremely strict quality regimes, as Brookhouse carries quality certification from all the leading aircraft manufacturers and from the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA). It is a JAR-145 approved maintenance organisation, a qualification which sets out the comprehensive and detailed aviation requirements of the Civil Aviation Authorities of several European countries, including France. This aims to facilitate the export and import of aviation products and to make it easier for aircraft maintenance carried out in one European country to be accepted by the civil Aviation Authority in another European country, in order to comply with national airworthiness codes. In addition, Brookhouse is also approved under JAR-21 Sub Part G to manufacture aircraft components, certified for acceptance in all of the 28 countries which make up the Joint Aviation Authority. It is the only composites manufacturing company in the UK to have gained this approval.

Details from Brookhouse. Tel: +44 (0)1254 706000.