Construction underway on aircraft maintenance hub

Construction on the largest aircraft maintenance base in Southwest China began in Kunming, Yunnan province, earlier this month.

Once completed in 2028, the first phase of the base at Kunming Changshui International Airport will feature a maintenance hangar capable of simultaneously accommodating 10 narrow-body aircraft for regular inspections.

Upon operation, the facility will handle maintenance tasks for mainstream series aircraft such as the B737 and A320, as well as the replacement of engines, landing gear and auxiliary power units.

Built by China Railway Construction Engineering Group, the hangar will span 260 meters with a total area of nearly 100,000 square meters. An investment of over 1.5 billion yuan ($212 million) has been sunk into the project.

The project will provide one-stop services, including aircraft disassembly, modification and accessory maintenance, and is supported by 12 stand alone projects such as the construction of a comprehensive maintenance workshop, an aircraft parts warehouse and a chemical products warehouse.

"In the early days, we did not have the conditions for independent domestic research and development in the field of aviation engines," said Yang Laihao, an expert from Xi'an Jiaotong University's High-End Intelligent Equipment Research Institute.

"The entire process of production, manufacturing and maintenance was provided by foreign original equipment manufacturers. Sometimes, the maintenance strategies of foreign manufacturers might not be reasonable, with inefficient tools and poor accessibility," he said.

In recent years, China has improved in aircraft manufacturing, moving from having a reliance on imports to independent research and development. From the production of aircraft body structure materials to the core components of engines, a series of breakthroughs have laid a solid foundation for the rapid development of China's aviation industry, Yang said.

He said that previously, the engine had to be taken apart and sent to a repair shop for inspection, which meant returning to the original equipment manufacturer abroad, or sending it to some fixed major repair bases in the local area. This was extremely time-consuming and labor-intensive, with very high costs and significant economic losses. Now, the plan is to promote in-situ maintenance.

"In the future, there may be a greater demand for independent maintenance technologies in the country," Yang added.

The 14th Five-Year Plan for Civil Aviation Development, issued by the Civil Aviation Administration of China in December 2021, says that efforts should be made to build a digital and intelligent aircraft maintenance and repair system, ensuring the safe, reliable and efficient operation of aircraft.

In terms of digital construction applications, the building information modeling adopted in the project provides comprehensive and reliable data support for airport operation and maintenance, facilitating the digital and intelligent operation of the airport and establishing a digital twin system where the physical airport and the virtual airport are mutually mapped.

"By relying on the digital construction platform, the electronic data is more complete and easier to query," said Su Shuai, the chief engineer of the Kunming Changshui International Airport Maintenance Base Project of CRCEG. "The experience and standards we have accumulated in areas such as design information, construction management data, construction plans and processes have provided an important guarantee for the digital construction of the expansion and renovation project of Kunming Changshui International Airport."

For Yang, an important development in aircraft maintenance has been the advancement of artificial intelligence technology throughout the entire supply chain.

Li Jianwei, Party secretary of the base project, said that advanced measures have already been implemented, such as grid-based management, 5G tower crane technology, robot applications, smart construction site systems, unmanned weighbridge systems, and concrete automatic curing systems.

The construction of the maintenance base will be conducive to an adjustment of the industrial structure, and will serve as an important support for Yunnan in building an aviation maintenance industry platform facing the whole country, South Asia and Southeast Asia.

Chen Yijun contributed to this story.