For aircraft component repair and overhaul specialist Able Aerospace, work on the landing gear of Boeing 737 Next Generation (NG) represents a new and significant piece of business. It's a big reason why the Textron Aviation unit spent $3 million on new equipment and undertook a 60,000-sq-ft facility expansion earlier this year. Such an investment could pay off in other ways, too, for the Mesa, Arizona-based company.

“When you look at the amount of tooling and new automated processes and CNC capabilities that we’re purchasing on brand-new equipment to automate this process and to keep tolerances tight to provide a very robust and quality product…it can lead into other markets as well,” Able Aerospace general manager Michael Vercio told AIN. “So the 737, I would say, is the catalyst for us to continue to grow our product line, and in bigger areas.”

With the investment, Able has sold its first three landing gear sets to what it said is one of the world’s largest commercial airlines. Its new capabilities allow it to modify and upgrade the landing gear on Boeing 737-700/-800/-900 NG models, of which there are nearly 7,000 in operation. 

“Obviously we’re new to the marketplace, but we do have a history of supporting airline needs, whether it’s through some part design improvements that we’ve manufactured and designed and sold to airlines, or whether it’s in overhaul,” Vercio explained. 

That history extends all the way back to component repair and overhaul on the Boeing 727 when that type was in service. More recently, it includes the manufacture of engine mounts on Boeing and Airbus single-aisle aircraft and Boeing 747 flap tracks and carriages. “And so while that airplane [747] is starting to be phased out, we still have those great relationships with those customers,” he said. Other capabilities, including special chemical processes, platings, and nondestructive inspection and testing, made the addition of 737 landing gear work “a natural fit for us to grow our product line,” Vercio added. “We believe there’s a big wave of demand coming. A lot of those [737s] are starting to come up on their regularly scheduled overhaul events.” He added that 737 landing gear typically is overhauled every 10 years; or even less for high-utilization airframes.

To accommodate the move into 737 landing gear and other growth, Able has added about 40 new workers this year, bringing its total employment to more than 450. “Our plan is to continue something probably fairly close to that going into 2020,” he said.

Able started out in 1982 primarily as a component and overhaul business to the rotorcraft industry, serving OEMs and providers such as Bell, Airbus, Erickson, and Leonardo. Following Textron Aviation’s 2016 acquisition of Able, it has expanded its work for sister company Bell as well as grown its involvement in business aircraft, including some Citations and Hawker jets as well as King Air turboprops. Its current business aircraft work statement includes landing gear overhaul on Hawker 800/900/1000 jets as well as brakes and starter generator overhauls on some King Airs and Citations.

“We’ve also been kind of the back shop for Textron Aviation, so some of the one-off, hard-to-find jobs [for which], maybe, a vendor’s gone out of business or [there are] quality issues with a vendor, we’ll bring those products into Able," Vercio said. "We’ve started to do a lot of the overhaul and repairs of those parts.”