Quiet Technology Aerospace Delivers 200 Corrosion Proof Carbon Fiber Engine Inlet Replacement Barrel

Quiet Technology Aerospace (QTA) has delivered its 200th Inlet Cowl upgrade incorporating a Carbon Fiber Replacement Inner Barrel to Albertsons Companies, a Gulfstream G280 operator out of Boise, Idaho. A growing and expensive fleet wide problem, these aircraft are plagued with the issue of inlet cowl inner barrel corrosion on the Honeywell HTF7250G engine inlets.

QTA is also announcing milestone progress on the 8th airframe candidate to the company’s four-year-old STC program. The Gulfstream G450 is now in the final stages of assembling a first article for FAA Conformity to finalize the STC. This particular Inlet offers substantial weight savings of 40 pounds. Like all QTA composite inner barrels, the barrel will eliminate corrosion permanently on the G450 aircraft. QTA will have exchange inlets available as early as September this year with the STC forecast to be awarded by the end August.

QTA’s very successful engineering and manufacturing program combats an expensive and time-consuming problem of aluminum engine Inlet Cowl inner-barrel corrosion and acoustic screen degradation on several business jet airframes. QTA replaces the aluminum based inner barrel with a lighter weight state-of-the-art Carbon Graphite Composite Barrel which terminates the root cause of the corrosion issue; and comes with a lifetime warranty that remains with the aircraft’s serial number and transfers to any future owner. It is the only permanent solution available today.

When installed, the inlets appearance is better than originally manufactured. This is not a repair to the original aluminum inlet which will certainly fail again, potentially causing engine damage. It is a permanent and terminating solution to the corrosion issue.

Barry Fine, CEO of Quiet Technology Aerospace, said “The delivery to Albertsons of our 200th Inlet Upgrade and the imminent approval of a terminating solution for G450 operators, means QTA now has a permanent and terminating corrosion fix for over 2100 aircraft around the world. Everyone at QTA is

proud of this achievement. That represents a large amount of time and money saved to operators that have been continuously troubled by expensive and time-consuming inner barrel corrosion on their original OEM Inlet Cowls, not to mention the already documented danger of engines ingesting corroded aluminum while operating. The carbon fiber inlet program insures QTA customers a safe, simple and quick experience when upgrading that is most of all, cost efficient and final. Ours is the industry’s only permanent solution.”

Fine continues, “Of important note to operators considering QTA’s permanent solution versus an MRO ‘repair’ that is 100% guaranteed to fail again…our warranty program is for the life of the aircraft and is transferable to future owners. The warranty automatically transfers to the new owner. Other companies may promote a ‘lifetime warranty’ but only QTA offers a transferrable warranty.”

The QTA program was awarded its seventh STC in fall 2019 for Embraer Legacy 450/500 series aircraft as well as to the next gen Embraer Praetor 500/600 aircraft.

Other inner barrel corrosion affected airframes benefitting from QTA’s state of the art engineering and carbon fiber manufacturing are the Lear 60, Gulfstream G200 & G280, Hawker 1000, Falcon 2000LX/EX and Challenger 300/350 series.

In its 34-year history, exactly zero QTA inlet upgrades have failed on aircraft operating over 21 years. The company’s first inlet upgrade was for the Douglas DC-8 in 1986.

Additionally, QTA offers a low-cost inlet “exchange program” that keeps aircraft free from extended AOG conditions. QTA can provide either exchange inlets or upgrade a complete set of Inlet Cowls in three weeks, greatly reducing operator downtime compared to alternative corrosion repairs.

As mentioned, QTA’s carbon graphite composite inner barrel comes with a lifetime warranty, assigned to the aircraft’s serial number that automatically transfers to any future owner. The QTA upgraded inlet cowls have life time Product Liability Insurance placed via Lloyds of London. The combined Product Warranty and Liability Insurance provides owner confidence for total coverage over the life of the aircraft.

Since the carbon fiber inner barrel replacement program began in 2015, operators of affected aircraft have shown enthusiastic support of QTA’s technology and the manufacturing quality of their product. Delivery and installation on Albertsons G280 marks 200 QTA Inlet Upgrades with carbon fiber inlet barrels installed on aircraft around the globe. Operators are both relieved from the corrosion problem that has plagued their engines inlets and impressed with the quality and reasonably priced QTA solution.

QTA’s other STCs for Inlet Upgrades cover the following aircraft types:

• Bombardier Challenger 300 and 350
• Bombardier Learjet 60 and 60XR
• Dassault Falcon Jet 2000LX-EX
• Gulfstream G200 & G280
• Hawker 1000
• Embraer Legacy 450/500 series and Embraer Praetor 500/600