"Aircraft (& Kitchen) Repair Station."

Global Express Wine & Glassware Holders (2020 & 2022)

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.

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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.

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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:

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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.

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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.

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All-in, each project only took around a week to complete, and very little time with the aircraft. It became a commonplace service to offer to Repair Station customers who were visiting for a myriad of reasons.

When asked if anything was learned from these projects that apply to other similar projects (and some that aren’t so similar), one of the team members tasked with the project mentioned that “it’s good to leave room for hand-fitting when doing custom projects like these. Just because something measures up on paper, or in CAD, it doesn’t mean that it will fit properly in its final space. There is nuance with fitting handmade items, and our hands are just the right tools for the job.”

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When ACI Jet is everything and a Repair Station.

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