Canterbury Company Wins Engineering Excellence Award

Beca, the company that designed the aircraft hangar maintenance docks used by Air New Zealand at its Christchurch maintenance base, has won the Supreme Award at the 2009 New Zealand Engineering Excellence Awards for the maintenance docks, which also won the Mechanical and Manufacturing category for Beca.

Each year, the Supreme Award is selected from among the winners of a number of different categories, and is intended to recognise the project that stands out from others in terms of its eminence and contribution to engineering in new Zealand.

Beca designed the hangar maintenance docks for Air New Zealand to deal with the airline’s need to accommodate a wide range of different aircraft types in its hangar; in larger establishments overseas, it is common for facilities to have separate “stand-alone” facilities dedicated to single types. The Beca-designed docks are capable of accommodataing twelve different narrow-body aircraft of different heights and body profiles, while simultaneously protecting the aircraft and allowing safe and easy access to the aircraft for workers. It is considered that the successful design of the docks has allowed Air New Zealand to secure engineering work that might otherwise have been lost offshore.

The success of the Beca project has led to further contracts for the maintenance base including servicing the US Antarctic support fleet and work for military operators such as the Royal Australian Air Force.

The Beca design met Air New Zealand’s requirements by using electro/mechanical screw-jacks, telescopic and trombone sections, roll-out panels and parallelogram stairs. Drawbridges allow the wings to be removed while the docks are in position, and retracting tail dock towers enable tail fin removal using the hangar overhead crane.

The docks were designed at Beca’s Canterbury office and fabricated by Southern Cross Engineering in Christchurch.

According to a judge of the awards, the Becan hangar maintenance dock is an innovation that is recognised internationally. Furthermore, it came in “well under budget and the on-going savings could be a million dollars a year”. Bishop added thate Warwick Bishop. ‘The docks exceed all of Air New Zealand’s expectations’

According to Warwick Bishop, who judged the awards, the Becan hangar maintenance dock is an innovation that is recognised internationally. Furthermore, according to Bishop, the project came in “well under budget and the on-going savings could be a million dollars a year. The docks exceed all of Air New Zealand’s expectations”