12/2011 | Structure engineering
As the Designated Engineering Representative (DER) acting on behalf of Lufthansa Technik, James Burd is responsible for ensuring that all structural work on the aircraft complies with the requirements of the American Federal Aviation Authority (FAA). "I’ve been working in the aerospace industry for about a quarter of a century, but a project like the Lockheed Super Star is unique and the high point of my career to date. The aircraft that will be taking off in a few years’ time will be of a technical quality comparable to that of a brand-new Airbus or Boeing," Burd says, eyes shining. Burd had already been involved on many projects through his company, Avenger, and had also closely observed the “old timer scene”. But the Structure DER is not aware of any other project whose purpose is to restore a four-engined propeller aircraft over 50 years old to an airworthy condition that satisfies the exacting certification standards of the Federal Aviation Authority.
It is this ambitious goal that accounts for the special challenge for the entire Super Star engineering team of Lufthansa Technik, which has been headed up in Auburn by Dr. Rainer Sebus since March 2011 and of which Burd and the engineers from his company Avenger are members.
As Designated Engineering Representative, James Burd has had the job of assessing and approving engineering instructions for the L-1649A project for Lufthansa Technik since September 2009. In 2011 the team of engineers moved into an office complex not far from the Super Star hangar at Auburn Lewiston airport in order to draw up the numerous repair instructions under optimal conditions. Some of the approximately 20-person Avenger team is based at the company’s office in Greenville, South Carolina, while other Lufthansa Technik engineers are working on the project from Hamburg.
In the course of their work the Super Star engineers refer to historic design documents from Lockheed which the manufacturer of the L-1649A has made available to the project. As Burd explains: "Our job was and is initially to understand how the Lockheed engineers designed the Super Star in the mid-1950s. This entails studying thousands of pages of stress reports and analyses. Every aircraft manufacturer makes minor departures from the standard procedure, and Lockheed is no exception. We use these specifications to build up and design new computational models that are compatible with the historic documents, especially where we are joining the existing structure to new, modern and equally good or better materials, compared with the originals."
The DER is the connecting link in the engineering team between the FAA and the repair work in the hangar. He does not work for the FAA, but is a member of the Super Star engineering team, yet by virtue of his license as an extended arm of the FAA, he has the authority to make decisions and approve engineering work. "My signature at the bottom of a document carries the same weight as an official FAA stamp," he says. In this connection DERs are subject to stringent checks on the part of the FAA, they have to submit their signed documents to the assigned FAA specialist supervision office for examination and every year they have to demonstrate their competence in an FAA check. "But we can also approach our FAA contacts on critical issues and obtain advice," he explains. "In the American engineering world, there are just two industries that are controlled and regulated to this extent – aviation and the nuclear industry – and for good reason!"
Wolfgang Borgmann
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It is this ambitious goal that accounts for the special challenge for the entire Super Star engineering team of Lufthansa Technik, which has been headed up in Auburn by Dr. Rainer Sebus since March 2011 and of which Burd and the engineers from his company Avenger are members.
As Designated Engineering Representative, James Burd has had the job of assessing and approving engineering instructions for the L-1649A project for Lufthansa Technik since September 2009. In 2011 the team of engineers moved into an office complex not far from the Super Star hangar at Auburn Lewiston airport in order to draw up the numerous repair instructions under optimal conditions. Some of the approximately 20-person Avenger team is based at the company’s office in Greenville, South Carolina, while other Lufthansa Technik engineers are working on the project from Hamburg.
In the course of their work the Super Star engineers refer to historic design documents from Lockheed which the manufacturer of the L-1649A has made available to the project. As Burd explains: "Our job was and is initially to understand how the Lockheed engineers designed the Super Star in the mid-1950s. This entails studying thousands of pages of stress reports and analyses. Every aircraft manufacturer makes minor departures from the standard procedure, and Lockheed is no exception. We use these specifications to build up and design new computational models that are compatible with the historic documents, especially where we are joining the existing structure to new, modern and equally good or better materials, compared with the originals."
The DER is the connecting link in the engineering team between the FAA and the repair work in the hangar. He does not work for the FAA, but is a member of the Super Star engineering team, yet by virtue of his license as an extended arm of the FAA, he has the authority to make decisions and approve engineering work. "My signature at the bottom of a document carries the same weight as an official FAA stamp," he says. In this connection DERs are subject to stringent checks on the part of the FAA, they have to submit their signed documents to the assigned FAA specialist supervision office for examination and every year they have to demonstrate their competence in an FAA check. "But we can also approach our FAA contacts on critical issues and obtain advice," he explains. "In the American engineering world, there are just two industries that are controlled and regulated to this extent – aviation and the nuclear industry – and for good reason!"
Wolfgang Borgmann
Back to overview
