San Antonio, Texas - January 27, 2006 - M7 Aerospace has received European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) Part 145 Certification for both of its FAA-certified repair stations, including one at M7's headquarters in San Antonio and one in its facility in Springfield, Mo.
EASA certification allows M7 to approve European-registered aircraft for return to service.
EASA, formerly the European Joint Airworthiness Authority (JAA), approved the applications for both of the M7 facilities late last year. M7 worked closely with the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration to receive the approvals. Both the San Antonio and Springfield locations are already certified to FAA Part 145 standards.
M7 Aerospace sought EASA approval to better serve European customers for its business of converting regional airliners from passenger to cargo configuration. M7 is internationally known for its ATR 42 and ATR 72 cargo conversions.
Converting airliners to cargo configuration is one of M7's primary areas of core business expertise. The company performs conversions at both of its repair stations.
In addition to ATR 42s and ATR 72s, M7 Aerospace has expertise in heavy maintenance and passenger to freight conversions for DeHavilland Dash 8s, Saab 340s, Embraer 120/135/145's and Fairchild Metroliners.
Additional M7 repair station capabilities include special mission conversions, corporate interior conversions, Garrett/Honeywell TPE-331 heavy maintenance, and a range of avionics services including installation of TCAS and TAWS systems, flight data recorders and cockpit voice recorders.
M7's San Antonio MRO operation also features the M7 Merlin factory re-conditioned corporate turboprop, an eight-to-ten seat business transport with 2,000 nautical mile range and 295-knot cruise speed.
Maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) is one of M7's five primary business activities. The company specializes in providing fleet service to commercial and government operators of regional aircraft and to other aviation customers.
In addition to its MRO activity, M7 specializes in aerostructures manufacturing; government contract logistics support programs; aircraft parts and product support, and aerial mapping with digital imaging products.
The Aerostructures Manufacturing segment of M7 Aerospace is capable of building virtually anything airframe-related, from the smallest detail parts to complete aircraft. Many of the parts and assemblies required to complete cargo conversions in M7's MRO operation are made in the company's Aerostructures Manufacturing operation.
More than 1,000 Fairchild Metro and Merlin-series aircraft were built in M7's (formerly Fairchild Aircraft, Inc.) manufacturing facilities. The San Antonio-based factory team also built complete wings for Dornier 328 fanjet regional airliners.
M7 is an approved supplier to Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Boeing, Agusta-Westland and other well-known aerospace manufacturers.
In its Government Contracts segment, M7 currently holds three Logistics Support contracts with the U.S. government to support fleets of C-26, C-23 and C-20 aircraft. C-26 is the government designation for a Fairchild Metro 23 regional airliner. C-20 is the designation for Gulfstream III or IV aircraft. C-23 is the government designation for a Shorts SD-360. M7's backlog of government business totals more than $700 million.
In its Aircraft Parts and Product Support business, M7 Aerospace supports the worldwide fleet of Fairchild Metro- and Merlin-series aircraft. M7 holds the type certificate for these airplanes and aggressively performs its role as the Original Equipment Manufacturer. It also builds parts for Metros and Merlins in its Aerostructures Manufacturing operation.
M7 Aerospace's fifth core business is M7 Visual Intelligence (VI). It specializes in remote sensing and surveillance, including ultra-high resolution digitally collected and processed true-color imaging, near-infra-red imaging and LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging).
VI's combination of the imaging and LiDAR generates photomaps that are sub-meter accurate in latitude and longitude, and better than 15-cm accurate in elevation.
Major applications of VI's technology include forestry, environmental studies, engineering, pipeline planning, construction, city planning and flood control studies. VI also markets its patented high-resolution color camera systems to the public and private sectors for mapping and reconnaissance applications, and provides automated image processing.
M7 Aerospace is based on the international airport in San Antonio, Texas. The company is located in a 426,000 sq. ft. factory complex formerly occupied by Fairchild Aircraft. M7 acquired the assets of Fairchild Aircraft in December 2002 and began operations under its own name on April 1, 2003.
M7 began with approximately 175 employees two years ago, including 116 in San Antonio. Today, the company now employs nearly 600 people worldwide and more than 350 in San Antonio.
