American Eurocopter Celebrates First U.S. Overhaul of EC135 Main Gear Box

May 14, 2009
Employees and executives converge at Dynamic Component Repair (DCR) facility in Texas.

GRAND PRAIRIE, TX – At an event held today in its Dynamic Component Repair (DCR) facility, American Eurocopter celebrated the completion of the first overhaul of a Main Gear Box for an EC135 helicopter. Employees and executives from all over the company joined the DCR team for this important milestone.

American Eurocopter received approval to repair and overhaul EC135 main gear boxes at the beginning of April and now offers local repair and overhaul services for all EC135 dynamic components. With this first completion, these services are now available to U.S. customers with a reduced turn around time.

"This completion reflects our commitment to providing overhaul and repair solutions for our EC135 customers," said Marc Paganini, President and CEO of American Eurocopter. "Our company focus is to provide services here in the United States that meets the demands of all our customers and we will continue to enhance our services as their needs evolve."

In the U.S. there are more than 200 EC135 that will benefit from the same certified overhaul and repair services that they received from the OEM ZF Luftfahrttechnik in Germany.

The preparation to add the EC135 repairs and overhauls to the Dynamic Component Repair facility at American Eurocopter was quite extensive. It included the certification of American Eurocopter staff and the acquisition of initial inventory and tooling. One of the major achievements was the modification of the company's multi-purpose test bench. In addition to the test bench's existing capabilities for BO105, BK117, AS365, EC120, and EC145 main gear boxes, the scope has been enlarged to include the EC135 main gear box.