The primary goals of the Air Engineering Depot (AED) are proper quality of maintenance and repair of basic and transit aircraft (AC); maintaining AC flight availability by improving aircraft equipment maintenance and repair; development of the training system, and improvement of the engineering personnel’s professional level.

The Air Engineering Depot of STC Russia is one of the largest in Russia. It has two hangars for AC maintenance where any work is done irrespective of the weather. The depot includes an equipment laboratory testing and repair workshop, providing maintenance/repair of sets and units of AC instruments and electric and radio electronic equipment. A special sector of the workshop provides testing and repair of aircraft hydraulic and altitude system units. Another subdivision of the AED is the flight data diagnosis, decoding, and analysis department. The department has an aircraft equipment diagnosis sector using most advanced methods and equipment, with an oil spectrum analysis laboratory; its personnel provides processing of protected flight data recorders and their data analysis to evaluate AC piloting quality and to monitor aircraft systems’ serviceability. The Air Engineering Depot operates in compliance with guidelines of the Civil Aviation Board, Federal Aviation Rules (ФАП-145) for aircraft equipment maintenance and repair companies, and the Certificate of Compliance issued to STC Russia by the Certifier of Maintenance and Repair Organizations of the Federal Transport Supervision Service (FTSS).

In 2005, by Instruction No. ВС-239-Р of the FTSS Director dated 17.11.2005, the Aircraft Equipment Maintenance and Repair Center was established on the basis of the AED of STC Russia. The AED-based Center is the only one in the North-West of Russia, and its status enables providing all kinds of routine maintenance and repair for virtually any type of Russian-made basic and transit aircraft.

In August 2005, the AED confirmed its compliance with certification requirements once again, having completed implementation of a quality system based on the ISO-9001:2000 international standard.

The high training level of engineering personnel is maintained due to a multistage skill upgrading system. The strictly observed technical education system requires that the AED employees should have their professional status confirmed once in six months. Most of the employees have specialized secondary or higher education, being graduates of the Air Engineering School, Aviation Instrument and Automation College, and the Civil Aviation Academy.

To support flights on international air lines, the AED personnel have outfitted our aircraft of all types with satellite navigation systems (TNL-2000), an air collision avoidance system (TCAS2000), fixed oxygen systems for passengers and stewards, and 300 m-interval vertical echeloning tools (RVSM). Besides, VHF radios have been replaced with more advanced stations having a broader frequency range. A terrain avoidance early warning system (СРПБЗ) has been installed. The aircraft are being outfitted with rescue radio beacons of the COSPAS-SARSAT satellite system and light strips indicating the cabin emergency escape routes. These actions enable STC Russia’s aircraft to make flights to any country of the world complying with international rules and standards. Currently, the up-to-ate Russian aircraft Tu-214 are being actively studied at the AED.

Flight safety and regularity, and equipment maintenance and repair quality at the AED of STC Russia is ensured due to the highly professional training of its engineering personnel, outfitting with advanced maintenance and diagnostic tools, flight recorder analysis, and timely and high-quality service.