HONOURED FOR COLLABORATION IN BUILDING AIRCRAFT ENGINE-TESTING CENTRE
By: Martin Cash
Winnipeg Free Press
Winnipeg’s StandardAero received this year’s Canadian American Business Achievement Award with GE Aviation of Cincinnati for their collaboration in designing and building the GE Aviation Aircraft Engine Testing, Research and Development Centre in Winnipeg. The award was handed out earlier this week in Ottawa, at an event attended by Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
StandardAero, which celebrated its 100th year in business last year, operates one of the largest independent gas turbine engine maintenance, repair and overhaul operations in the world. It has had a long association with GE as a certified repair centre for a portfolio of GE engines including those used on the popular Boeing 737 airliners.
Kim Olson, StandardAero’s senior vice-president, technology, said, “It was an honour to be recognized.” The Winnipeg company does lots of collaborations around the world, but Olson said, “This really was a one-of-a-kind project.”
GE designed and built the $50-million, 120,000-square-foot facility located on the northwest outskirts of the Winnipeg airport runways and StandardAero operates it.
About a dozen StandardAero employees run it now, and Olson said that number will grow as year-round testing will likely start this summer.
Taking only eight months to complete — it was commissioned early this year — and requiring 68,000 kilograms of concrete, the state-of-the-art facility is designed to perform icing certification testing on gas turbines engines up to 150 inches in diameter and up to 150,000 pounds of thrust.
But the centre will also develop advanced testing methodologies and equipment for GE Aviation’s commercial and military aircraft engines.
As well, a publicly funded entity called West Canitest R&D Inc. (WestCaRD), will set up ancillary high-tech research projects that will assist third-party technology development programs and academic research associated with the engine-testing facility.
It is one of a few facilities of its kind in North America to perform such testing, utilizing a state-of-the-art noise-reduction system and incorporating a translating wind tunnel to enable year-round performance and endurance, ice crystal and mixed phase testing.
The partnership was nominated by the Ohio Department of Development and the Consulate General of Canada in Michigan and won over dozens of other nominations from throughout North America.
Past winners include:
2011 – Michael Rapino – president and CEO, Live Nation Entertainment, Inc.
2010 – Curves International of Waco, Texas and Mytrak Health System of Mississauga, Ont.
2009 – Claude Mongeau, president and CEO of CN Rail.
2008 – Active Control Technologies Inc. of Burlington, Ont., and Mesh Dynamics Inc. of Santa Clara, Calif.
2007 – Westport Innovations of Vancouver and Cummins Inc. of Columbus, Ind.
WEEKLY UPDATE FROM ROB MIONIS
StandardAero Team:
Our award winning streak continues for StandardAero! Our latest win is one of the most notable recognitions in recent history. StandardAero and GE Aviation were announced as this year’s winners of the prestigious 2012 Canadian American Business Council (CABC) Achievement Award. The award was for our collaboration in the design, development and installation of the state-of-the-art Engine Testing, Research and Development Centre (“Icing Facility”) in Winnipeg.
The CABC Achievement Award is presented to a partnership between a Canadian company and a U.S. company that meets the following criteria: sustained profitability, job creation, financial strength, environmental responsibility and exceptional innovation. There is only one winner per year and the StandardAero/GE Aviation nomination was in competition with dozens of nominations from diverse sectors throughout North America for the award.
According to one of the panel judges, the selection committee not only was impressed by the working partnership between the two companies, but also by the innovative impact our solution has on improving the safety of air travel in North America. “The partnership is a strong example of how two companies have come together to make use of their respective areas of expertise and innovate a technology that will contribute to the industry and the community,” said Jordan Robinson of J.C. Flowers & Co and Chair of the 2012 Judging Panel.
Below are some photos from the award presentation ceremony held last week in Ottawa, Canada. Kim Olson, SVP, Helicopters, Energy & Engineering and Brent Ostermann, Director, Engineering were in attendance to accept the award for StandardAero. For more info on the CABC and the award event, click here: www.canambusco.com
