Vector Aerospace team honoured by Boeing

Vector Aerospace Helicopter Services – UK, one of the world’s leading independent providers of aviation maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) services was recently awarded the prestigious ATLAS Teaming, Collaboration and Customer Service Excellence Award by Boeing Global Services & Support business. 

The award was presented in recognition and appreciation of outstanding performance and invaluable contributions to the customer and the company. 

The ATLAS Award was presented on the 29th October to the Boeing UK Chinook Through Life Customer Support (TLCS) Contractor on Deployed Operations (CONDO) Planning & Execution Team which provides field service engineering, maintenance and repair support for the UK Chinook fleet in Afghanistan.

Based at the Vector Aerospace - UK (Fleetlands) operation in Gosport, Neil Sharpe, Chinook Head of Production, and Philip Westripp, Chinook Production Manager, were among the team members who received the award.

“Vector Aerospace plays a vital role on our TLCS team,” said David Pitchforth, Managing Director, Boeing UK Rotorcraft Support.  “Their contribution to our planning and execution enabled us to swiftly deploy much needed contractor support to Afghanistan where we were able to help maintain the fleet at this critical point in operations.”

Tim Rice, Managing Director, Vector Aerospace - UK, said, “We have always been proud of the part we play in supporting the Chinook fleet and when the call came for volunteers to go into theatre the enthusiastic response it received really underlined the commitment of our team.”

The UK Chinook TLCS programme is a performance-based logistics agreement with the Ministry of Defence (MoD) that guarantees to provide a minimum of 27 aircraft available on a daily basis, often exceeding that goal.  Vector Aerospace has partnered with Boeing to increase maintenance efficiency and reduce cycle time, minimise down time by embodying modifications and aircraft repairs during maintenance, and providing flexibility to support a surge in operations. 

Since 2006 to 2009, The Boeing/Vector Aerospace team, in cooperation with the MoD, has increased output to support a 30% increase in Chinook flight hours per year.  Two additional Chinook aircraft are also available to support current operations as a result of steadily improving capability delivery under the TLCS contract.