U.S. Coast Guard’s Airbus Ocean Sentry Fleet Attains Flight-hour Milestone
MOBILE, Ala., Sept. 22, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — After eight years in service, the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) fleet of 18 Airbus HC-144A Ocean Sentry maritime patrol aircraft has surpassed 100,000 flight hours.
A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/6d811952-2b2a-4b8a-bb6a-03533f81578c
The flight-hour milestone achievement is a product of the Coast Guard’s dedication to mission performance, but has been made possible by the aircraft’s superior availability and reliability. Airbus and the U.S. Coast Guard commemorated the milestone at the Airbus Defense and Space maintenance, repair and overhaul facility in Mobile, Alabama.
“The Ocean Sentry has provided the U.S. Coast Guard the capability to fly more hours per sortie without having to stop to refuel or complete maintenance,” said Capt. Joe Kimball, Chief of the USCG Office of Aviation Forces. “The ability to stay in the air longer with Ocean Sentry has allowed us to increase the effectiveness of our Aviation Assets responding to Coast Guard missions.”
While in service with the USCG, the HC-144A has been involved in 3,500 search and rescue missions saving 620 lives, and supported 8,400 law enforcement missions, including 890 drug interdiction missions. It also played a response role during the recent hurricanes Harvey and Irma.
“Mobile is proud to be a U.S. Coast Guard city, and it was my pleasure to congratulate them on 100,000 life-saving flight hours with the HC-144,” said Mobile Mayor Sandy Stimpson. “We’re proud of our relationship with the Coast Guard and Airbus and the great work they do in Mobile.”
Airbus Defense and Space offers comprehensive maintenance, repair and overhaul services, professional engineering and technical support for the aircraft in Mobile.
“Being here in the Gulf Coast, we get to witness every day the continuous support the Coast Guard provides to our region and worldwide across a range of demanding missions,” said Stephan Miegel, Head of Military Aircraft Services, Airbus Defence and Space. “We take a lot of pride watching the Ocean Sentries taking off every day just across the flight line from us.”
The current fleet of Ocean Sentry aircraft operates out of Coast Guard Air Stations in Cape Cod, Mass.; Mobile, Ala.; Corpus Christi, Texas; and Miami. By the year 2022, the fleet is expected to reach 200,000 flight hours.
About HC-144A
The HC-144A Ocean Sentry is a medium-range surveillance aircraft built around the design of the Airbus CN235 tactical air lifter and maritime patrol aircraft, of which more than 235 are currently in operation in 29 countries. The twin-engine aircraft has a flight time endurance of nearly 12 hours and a range of 2,100 nautical miles.
About Airbus Defense & Space: Military Aircraft
An operating unit of Airbus, Airbus Defense & Space: Military Aircraft in Mobile offers complete maintenance, repair and overhaul services, extensive material services, professional engineering, and technical support for transport aircraft. Its 60+-person Mobile operation provides operators of the C212 and CN235 tactical transports with the capabilities of a certified FAA and European Aviation Safety Agency repair station. In 2015 the company opened a new 7,500-square-foot component repair facility, expanding on its 30,000-square-foot maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) delivery center. The component repair facility is an industrial resource to improve customer service for the company’s medium and light multi-mission aircraft operators. The services include hydraulic, avionics, composite and structural repairs; painting; component exchange; and highly skilled engineering support.
Media Contacts:
Quentin Hunstad 703-269-8770 quentin.hunstad@airbus.com
Kristi Tucker 251-434-7456 kristi.tucker@airbus.com
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In the dive industry internal visual inspections and carried out every 2 to 3 years depending on region to look for pitting or degradation alongside a hydrostatic clulinder test which is a test to check the structural integrity of the cylinder. We also us the exact same cylinders for our large air banks so these inspections almost elliminate the chance of cylinder rupture. I would be interested to know if those international compressed air cylinder inspection standards followed in the dive industry was required for this ship and applied. It’s amazing to me having done many inspections myself to belief that 75% thickness in cylinder wall reductions could be possible with regular inspections, the extra factor is also that that are stored in harsh salty conditions adding to the rapid degradation but shorty inspection periods would be applicable for that.