When the holiday plane comes to the end of its service life....
Most aircraft types are designed to complete 50 000 – 60 000 hours of flying. So the number of flights ranges from 20 000 for long-haul aircraft and 75 000 for short-haul aircraft.
But what happens to a holiday plane when it has exceeded the maximum?
These Machines contain many valuable metals and recyclable materials. Together with its partner More-Aero, CRONIMET takes care of dismantling these mounatins of metal. This is the reason why Gregor Zenkner, Head of Business Development, travels to Parchim again and again: two such discarded aircraft are located at the unused airport there.
The project and the first assignment for CRONIMET begins with the defuelling of the planes – which is the biggest problem. „Since aircrafts cannot normally be defuelled by means of road tankers, we had to find a different solution,“ explains Zenkner. „ As a result, we´re now able to offer defuelling and disposal as a service in the future.“
After this, the largest parts, the engines and the undercarriages are removed and the avionics are dismantled. This includes the electronics, pumps and hydraulic systems that are purchased, maintained and used by specialist companies. The structural parts, such as parts of the wing, are used for Airbus material and fatigue tests. Then the proces of complete dismantling begins. Once the machine has been gutted, CRONIMET comes back on the scene to destroy, crush and sell the hull. It is mainly made of aluminium alloys.
In total, each aircraft has 150tons of dismantling mass. The process is carried out by celleagues from Karlsruhe and Poland. The titanium rivets on the metal layers are separeted by our partner using special preparation machines. As soon as CRONIMET staff have removed all metallic elements, the remaining pollutants are disposed of separately.
„I am convinced that the pilot project will enable us to acquire expertise and establish a good position for ourselves so we can benefit from aircraft decommissioning in the long term. It is estimated that in 10 years more than 10,000 aircraft will be out of service.“ GREGOR ZENKNER
Source: Cronicle 02/2019