GE Measurement & Control Solutions

Monarch Aircraft Engineering Go For XL GO From GE

Will Provide Quicker, Easier and More Accurate Remote Visual Inspection

Coventry, England – 24 May 2011 – After a comprehensive eighteen month appraisal of the relevant technology currently available, Monarch Aircraft Engineering Ltd (MAEL) has selected XL Go and XL Vu portable video borescopes from the Inspection Technologies business of GE Energy’s Measurement & Control Solutions to meet their future remote visual inspection (RVI) needs. The truly portable instruments will be widely used by MAEL for tasks ranging from on-wing inspection to engine health monitoring.

Based at London Luton airport, MAEL is a sister company to Monarch Airlines and provides base maintenance, line maintenance, engineering and technical support, aircraft engine services and technical training. Base maintenance, including heavy “D” checks, is carried out at MAEL’s hangar facilities at Luton and Manchester International airports with line maintenance facilities at locations including London Gatwick, Malaga, Kiev, Goa and the Maldives. The company has extensive maintenance experience on a wide range of Boeing and Airbus aircraft.

Remote visual inspection is a very important inspection tool and is used to carry out simple examinations behind panels as well as full, front-to-back inspection of each stage of a jet engine. As Lee Burgess, head of maintenance control and capacity planning at MAEL, explains, “For Monarch Airlines alone we can carry out in excess of 340 borescope inspections every year, as well as performing inspections for other airlines throughout the world. We have been using our previous trolley-mounted equipment for the past eight years and we believe we have taken a huge technological leap forward with the purchase of the new, next-generation XL Go and XL Vu instruments. Their portability, ease of use and enhanced functionality will make remote inspections quicker and easier, while providing more accurate results.”

XL Go and XL Vu are both lightweight, high resolution, video borescopes, with intuitive, easy-to-use controls. They are totally self-contained, requiring no cable connection to any associated processing or drive instrument and feature a navigable insertion tube with 360 degree articulation for greater flexibility of inspection. The XL Go has added functionality with exclusive measurement features, including ShadowProbe® and StereoProbe®. Inverse and zoom features allow precise cursor placement and optical camera tip adapters alter field of view, depth of field and direction of view.

Burgess adds, “The successful trials of the new instruments demonstrated their ease of use, which has helped a lot in training our technicians while the portability is extremely important both during inspection itself and also for transport to line maintenance sites. We believe that our investment in the GE technology will see a significant reduction in our on-going repair costs, as well as allowing us to market ourselves more widely as a borescope solution provider.”

About Measurement & Control Solutions

Measurement & Control Solutions is a leading innovator in advanced, sensor-based measurement, non-destructive testing and inspection and condition monitoring, delivering accuracy, productivity and safety to a wide range of industries, including oil & gas, power generation, aerospace, transportation and healthcare. It has over 40 facilities in 25 countries and is part of GE Energy Services, which provides cleaner, smarter, more efficient solutions for its customers. For further information, visit www.ge-mcs.com

About GE

GE (NYSE: GE) is an advanced technology, services and finance company taking on the world’s toughest challenges. Dedicated to innovation in energy, health, transportation and infrastructure, GE operates in more than 100 countries and employs about 300,000 people worldwide. For more information, visit the company's Web site at www.ge.com.

GE serves the energy sector by developing and deploying technology that helps make efficient use of natural resources. With more than 90,000 global employees and 2010 revenues of $38 billion, GE Energy www.ge.com/energy is one of the world’s leading suppliers of power generation and energy delivery technologies. The businesses that comprise GE Energy—GE Power & Water, GE Energy Services and GE Oil & Gas—work together to provide integrated product and service solutions in all areas of the energy industry including coal, oil, natural gas and nuclear energy; renewable resources such as water, wind, solar and biogas; and other alternative fuels.

Media Contact:

David Jervis