With three full-service MRO locations, 180 paint experts, and 12 aircraft designers, Duncan Aviation paints more than 230 business aircraft every year in a variety of paint schemes from Matterhorn white with one stripe to intricate artistic designs and color-fade illusions. Customers are pleased with the results and most return when they upgrade their aircraft or add to their fleet. So it was no surprise when a Global 5000 customer requested that Duncan Aviation paint his recently delivered Global 7500.
The customer worked with Teri Nekuda, lead designer at Duncan Aviation’s Lincoln, Nebraska, facility, and Lead Designer Molly Foster at Duncan Aviation’s Provo, Utah, facility to develop a light gold and silver metallic paint scheme that emanated a feeling of clean elegance.
The aircraft was painted at Duncan Aviation’s state-of-the-art, 53,000-square-foot paint facility in Provo, Utah, which has a two-zone air system that features down-draft air flow and automatic monitoring and alarms. The hangar accommodates multiple aircraft at once, so the paint teams are able to strip, sand, paint, and detail on several aircraft simultaneously.
The facility was also built with the environment in mind, as it releases no waste products to the water or to the city of Provo and meets the very strict air requirements set by the state of Utah and by the EPA. In fact, air from the hangar goes through an RTO (Regenerative Thermal Oxidizer) that burns off the VOCs (Volatile Organic Compounds), so more than 99.7 percent of the air released is clean.
“Our goal was to once again exceed our customer’s expectations,” says designer Foster. “I’m really pleased with how the paint turned out, but more importantly, the customer was delighted. It was fun to see his reaction when he first saw his Global. He was impressed, and he loves the way it looks.”
