Fokker Services signed an agreement with seat manufacturer Acro to be the exclusive reseller of lightweight seats for the Fokker 50, 70 and 100 and the Dash 8 aircraft. It also won a five-year Abacus contract from Nigerian airline Aero for its Dash 8 Q-300 aircraft.

HAECO explores new areas to meet changing industry needs.

How much of your maintenance is contracted out? Gibbs: Cathay Pacific outsources all of its maintenance, with the exception of line maintenance outside Hong Kong. So line maintenance in Hong Kong is with Haeco [see Haeco article on pg. xx], and heavy [airframe] maintenance is pretty much with Haeco or its subsidiary Taeco [Taikoo (Xiamen) Aircraft Engineering Co. Ltd.] in mainland China. We have occasionally used other providers, but not for the past five years. A lot of the work is being done in Xiamen, particularly cabin reconfiguration.

AirVault added several new members to its advisory board. Ron Utecht will advise the company, using his experience from his former role as CEO, president and COO of Timco and former senior VP of maintenance and engineering for United Airlines. AirVault also added James Brunke and Peter Bull to the advisory team.

Chromalloy is pursuing organization designation authorization (ODA) approval for repairs, which it currently does through its 13 designated engineering representatives (DER). Chromalloy hopes to achieve ODA in the next year or two, which would give it a single interface with the FAA and most likely expedite approval of the hundreds of repairs it develops each year, says Dr. Peter Howard, VP, technology and quality assurance. Chromalloy's technology center in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., is the hub of its parts, coatings and repairs development.

When Stephen Morse invented the twist drill bit in the 1860s, the aviation world was characterized at best by gliders, parachutes and birdlike machines that achieved flying for only a few minutes. Things have certainly changed immensely in the field of aeronautics since then, but the drill bit has more or less stayed the same. That is, until Perfect Point created a forceless drilling process that uses an electrode to remove a fastener in seconds.

FlightPath International appointed Rudy Toering to VP, business development. Toering joins the company for CAE.

Oxford Aviation Academy and Ulyanovsk Higher Civil Aviation School in Russia have signed a memorandum of understanding to develop flight training programs for modern aircraft in Russia. Correction: The March story "Exploiting the Data Explosion" contained an incorrect spelling of Peeter Kivestu's name.