"Aircraft (& Kitchen) Repair Station."
Global Express Wine & Glassware Holders (2020 & 2022)
- Aircraft: (2) Global Express XRSs
- Date: 2020 & 2022
- Key Contributor(s): Avionics & Engineering Team; Streamline Engineering Solutions; Aerocrafted
Repair Station plus custom kitchen design and fabrication in these two cases. ACI Jet’s Cabin Care Manager came to the Repair Station with a unique request back in 2020, and it became a new offering as a result. These are just two of the projects where the unique skill set of one of ACI Jet MRO’s avionics technicians and resident engineer were put to use.
The first project was for a 2007 Global Express XRS. Cabin Care had sought a solution for storing the aircraft owner’s preferred wines that would keep them safe from breaking and quiet while in flight. Whatever the solution was, the inflight service team didn’t want to sacrifice too much storage space to do it. The team took this opportunity to design and fabricate custom holders for the aircraft galley drawers.
The team treated the project like any other engineering challenge. First, they needed to learn the requirements of the customer, then identify the dimensional constraints within the space required. While function was critical, when dealing with a multi-million dollar private jet interior, form matters, too. The decision was made to do custom designed, laser cut foam layers to cradle the bottles–the exact shape of each bottle.
The modeling was done in a CAD program which then allowed for easy slicing of the model for foam applications. To ensure a perfect fit, a mockup was fabricated and all dimensions cross checked. Final foam laser cutting was completed at Streamline Engineering Solutions. The final product was epic, and needed to be shared with the world:
The second project showcased in this article was completed in April of 2022. Similarly to the wine bottle caddies, Inflight Services had requested a solution to safely store the handmade Italian glassware belonging to the owner of a 2010 Global Express XRS.
The initial plan was to modify the supporting top plate by reverse engineering the size and mounting hole placements, then using those measurements to fabricate a new top plate with custom-sized holes for the new glassware. After starting with scale paper prints for glassware placements, a cardboard laser cut 2D model for fitting and final cutting of the plexiglass at Aerocrafted in San Luis Obispo, it was time to follow the same steps for the bottom plate and install.
