Story ID: 426
QTA Upgrading AB Jets’ Challenger Thrust Reversers
By: Kerry Lynch
Caption: Upgrades include carbon fiber inlet cowl inner barrel
Word Count: 172
Quiet Technology Aerospace (QTA) was selected to provide its titanium thrust reversers and carbon-fiber inlet cowls upgrades for AB Jets’ Bombardier Challenger 3500 fleet. AB Jets, a Memphis, Tennessee-based air charter operator, recently took delivery of the first of three Challenger 3500s that will become a core part of its operations. The model is powered by a pair of Honeywell HTF7350 turbofans.
Being incorporated immediately upon delivery, the QTA upgrades are designed to protect against corrosion, ensuring long-term reliability and minimizing future maintenance events on the aircraft.
Under QTA’s supplemental type certificate, the upgrade replaces aluminum skins of the thrust reverser with a permanent titanium structure that exactly replicates the original exit area and inner mold line, so it doesn’t impact engine performance. QTA also replaces the inner aluminum barrel of the inlet cowls with a carbon-graphite inner barrel that will not corrode.
QTA noted that while many companies adopt these upgrades later in their aircraft cycle, AB Jets is proactively incorporating them.