New container for on-wing care

Removing an engine for maintenance is an expensive and time-consuming operation. It also requires the availability of another engine, which is why airlines are so keen to keep the engine on the aeroplane’s wing during maintenance whenever possible. They call it ‘on-wing care’. This approach is understandable, but it recently posed a challenge for Hydro, the market leader in Ground Support Equipment (GSE) and Maintenance Tooling.

Requirements for on-wing care

Hydro provides a wide range of transport equipment for all Rolls-Royce aircraft engines. However, the on-wing care of the Rolls-Royce Trent XWB required something other than the norm. On-wing mechanics needed a container to hold the split engine tooling, mechanics tool boxes and limited spares/consumables they use when splitting and re-assembling a Trent XWB. So, Hydro asked VRR to design and manufacture an AKN container which will hold all tools and equipment necessary to perform the task. As we don't shy away from specialised requirements, we were happy to oblige.

A versatile solution

The newly-designed AKN container is extremely accessible. It has a foldable door on the front and aft side. It also has a foldable side-hatch on the left side, which the mechanics can use to access the tools and equipment stored in the outboard side of the container. What’s more, the stanchions, drawers and shelves can be relocated or removed by taking out the pins that connect them to the container’s structure. The shelves and drawers can also be adjusted to increase or decrease their height.

The interior’s storage system has been fully customised to hold, secure and protect tools, hand tool boxes and (spare) parts. Storage boxes have a layer of foam, while the two bottom draws have foam compartments cut to fit the profile of loose tools. To help the mechanics identify tools and parts with speed, compartments are labelled with the tool name and part number.

The interior includes: