One of the world’s leading providers of aircraft propeller blade overhaul and repair services, Aircraft Propeller Service (APS), is expanding its range of offerings for new and existing clients into the fields of aircraft teardown and the Used Serviceable Materials (USM) market. The company itself sees its entry into this field as a complimentary service to those it currently offers to customers worldwide.
With this diversification, APS, which has gained over 70 years of experience in servicing propeller blades, will specialize in the supply of key components for the ATR turboprop and Embraer E-jet families of regional aircraft. The company will serve the needs of operators of these popular aircraft types as a fill-in vendor of critical components that are difficult to find elsewhere in the USM market.
AeroTime takes a closer look at what the future holds for APS, and how the company is using the expertise it has developed through decades of overhauling propellers to expand its business.
About APS
APS started life in 1953 as a small propeller repair shop for general aviation, based near Chicago. Over the years, driven by the introduction of turboprop-powered aircraft, APS developed a specialty for the overhaul and repair of turboprop propeller blades. Nowadays, from its facilities in Chicago (USA), Sao Paulo (Brazil), and Subang (Malaysia), APS supports a broad offering of services covering the global regional aircraft market.
Ongoing success has led APS to develop aspirations to leverage its highly specialized capabilities through international expansion. In 2016, APS acquired an MRO facility, previously owned by Goodrich, located in Atibaia, Sao Paulo state, Brazil. Over 12 months, APS redesigned the facility and turned it into a state-of-the-art propeller service center. This acquisition gave the company an international presence it had previously lacked.
Then, in 2023, APS APS began to develop a service center in Subang, near Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, offering a broad range of turboprop propeller overhaul services to regional aircraft operators in southwest Asia for the first time.
Over the years, APS has become one of the few independent MROs licensed by Collins Aerospace to service some of the world’s most advanced turboprop propeller systems. In doing so, APS has emerged as a key player in the MRO turboprop space through its expertise and strong dedication to customer service and support.
APS is now the Official Equipment Manufacturer (OEM)-licensed propeller overhaul facility for Collins Aerospace propeller systems in the Americas and Asia. In addition, its engineering and machining teams also specialize in small to mid-size component manufacturing.
In 2021, following the ongoing growth of its businesses in the US, Brazil, and Malaysia, APS diversified into airframe teardown and the supply of serviceable (SV) and overhauled (OH) regional aircraft components, while also offering As Removed (AR) cores to operators, leasing companies and aircraft owners worldwide.
Through this business, the company now specializes in airframe component trading for the ATR42/72 turboprop family, plus the Embraer E170, E190, and E195 platforms.
APS expands into aircraft teardown
In 2021, APS obtained its first complete airframe, an ATR42-300, and duly began its journey towards gaining the expertise required to enter the USM arena. With APS’s extensive knowledge of ATR aircraft, particularly their propulsion systems, it used the airframe to formulate and test its teardown systems and processes. Having stripped the airframe of key reusable components, APS remarketed these assets within the USM market for ATR operators worldwide.
Following the success of this initial teardown process, and the successful remarketing of hundreds of reusable parts back to the USM market, the company diversified further. It began to explore the teardown of Embraer jets, acquiring both an E170 and an E190 in late 2022. The teardown process for the two aircraft took around 6 months to complete. APS was then able to add E-jet components to its USM inventory of hard-to-find parts that can be purchased and delivered at short notice.
APS aims to become a world leader in the USM aircraft component industry, offering a continually expanding supply of serviceable components. Most recently, this was proven through the purchase of an E195, previously operated by Azul Linhas Aéreas Brasileiras S/A and torn down on July 10, 2024.
The teardown was completed by one of APS’s preferred vendors, Assent Aviation Services in Tucson, Arizona. With the aircraft operating for a mere 15 years, APS saw this as an opportunity to enter the E195 market with a healthy book of well-maintained inventory. Their previous experience of maintaining Azul’s propeller systems only aided their decision as the Brazilian operator is known to promote impeccable maintenance practices and attention to detail.
APS intends to acquire further ATR and Embraer airframes as the business division expands, with the aim of building up an extensive inventory of USM parts that can be shipped anywhere in the world upon receipt of verified purchase orders. The company is focusing on end-of-lease airframes that are unlikely to be remarketed to new operators by their owners. Such aircraft would be due to undergo expensive heavy maintenance checks that are not economically viable, given their residual value.
APS has established a team of experts tasked with sourcing such airframes based at its headquarters in Lake Zurich, Illinois. Once identified and acquired, the airframes selected to undergo the teardown process are sent to teardown facilities for dismantling, which APS outsources.
As the teardown progresses, each reusable part is tagged and cataloged in the APS USM database. It is at this point that full due diligence is undertaken to establish the provenance and service history of each individual component, as well as to ensure that it is safe for remarketing. Each component is guaranteed to be in repairable condition and to be free of incident. In most instances, maintenance and removal records can be traced either back-to-operator or back-to-birth – and in many cases, both.
Documentation is also produced to establish the part’s useable remaining service life, where appropriate, before remarketing.
While larger components such as auxiliary power units and landing gear may be sent away for overhaul, much of the rest of the inventory is retained and remarketed in “As Removed” condition immediately following the teardown. The less desirable components are kept with the aircraft which is then scrapped and the remnants fully recycled.
Those that are retained are placed into secure storage at the firm’s headquarters in Illinois and can be shipped to any location worldwide.
Chris Hutchings, Vice President of Sales & Marketing for APS, said: “We do things right the first time, and ensuring safety is at the forefront of all facets of our business. Extending these key traits to the USM market will only bolster our value proposition and aid us in being a world-class vendor for ATR and E-Jet operators.”
“As an AS9100D certified organization and an OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) licensed repair station, APS is bringing the same level of trusted quality to the USM market as we have for 70 years to the propeller market. Our trustworthiness and Customer satisfaction are what help us build strong and lasting relationships,” Hutchings added.
Looking to the future
APS intends to build up this area of its business, aiming to acquire and tear down five to six ATR or Embraer airframes per year, within the next five years.
2023 was the year that APS ramped up its operations to fine-tune teardown processes, establish distribution channels and vendor relationships, and develop marketing strategies to support the E-jet USM market. 2024 will see APS expand its inventory by an additional 1,500 aircraft components. It will also continue to grow its network of preferred E-jet repair vendors to accommodate the expected influx of As Removed material to be sent for recertification.
For Embraer/ATR parts – think APS
As newer variants of ATR and Embraer regional jets enter service, demand for key components for these two aircraft types is likely to increase. Similarly, as older aircraft are retained by operators to match capacity with soaring demand, APS foresees that demand for such components will continue to rise.
It is this rising demand for spare parts in the coming years on which APS is aiming to capitalize while continuing to provide a high quality of service in its propeller overhaul business to its global customer base, many of whom have been loyal customers of the company for decades.
