In the few months since Asian Aerospace 2000, Singapore Technologies Aerospace has been making progress on all fronts. Talking to Show News, ST Aerospace president Wee Siew Kim, discussed developments in three very different areas: the Falcon One F-16 upgrade; airframe maintenance, modification, component/engine repair and overhaul; and new e-commerce initiatives.

"The Falcon One has been launched in the market and we are hoping to announce a significant partnership on that project during the show," Wee said. "The whole program is an important milestone in our engineering capability. We have gone from upgrade work on the A-4 to the F-5 and now the F-16.

"We can customize aircraft to meet any customer's requirements and so we now have significant portfolio to offer to those other than the Republic of Singapore Air Force."

"With our e-commerce initiatives we will become more accessible to our customers and they to us. In February we launched our first on-line customer relations provisions, allowing you to check on the day-to-day status of your aircraft in our workshop. Two weeks ago we launched our first vertical aerospace model to link customers and services at ST Aerospace and ST Engineering.

"Ultimately we want to be a neutral contact to services outside our company. Initially we hope to interest our existing core customers like Japan Air Lines, Northwest and FedEx, all of whom are up and running on the system to some degree today. We know we can convince them that we can deliver.

"On the maintenance and overhaul front we have signed a new agreement with AFG and we are building up our CFM56-3 overhaul capability. In the U.S. we have two facilities-one at ST Mobile Aerospace Engineering at Mobile, Alabama, and at DalFort Aerospace at Dallas-Love Field, Texas. Mobile is a heavy maintenance base dealing with STC modifications and the MD-10 conversion program. It was developed by ST Aerospace from a green field site in 1991. Dalfort specializes in narrow-body work and other services. We are looking to expand these capabilities to become a more complete technical partner."

"We currently have over 40 personnel working at Wichita with Boeing Aviation Services on the Boeing 757. They are dedicated to STC work on our 757 passenger-to-freighter conversion program and we hope to fly the first aircraft within a few months. The 757 conversion is a three-way program, involving ST Aerospace, Boeing and IAI," Wee said. "Once the prototype has flown and been awarded its STC we will undertake a substantial portion of the conversion work. DHL will be the first customer with an order for 44 aircraft."

Looking ahead, Wee said, "At Asian Aerospace 2002 we will have the Falcon One demonstrator flying and, by then we aim to be a global military and civil MRO provider. We will be able to offer a whole range of engineering solutions. We want to be a global company, both in our geographic spread and our range of available services. I particularly hope our e-commerce business takes off, and that people recognize what a value-added service it can be."

By Robert Hewson