00:00If a plane gets sick, it might end up here, at Delta Technical Operations in Atlanta.
00:09At nearly three million square feet, it's the biggest aircraft repair shop in North America.
00:14Here, mechanics, technicians, and engineers fix nearly a thousand planes a year,
00:19with all kinds of issues, from a loose screw to an engine failure.
00:23But it takes a lot more than elbow grease to get a plane back in the air.
00:26This is a bustling and expensive 24-hour operation.
00:30The work never stops because the planes never stop.
00:33That's Cedric. Back in February, before COVID-19 was declared a pandemic,
00:37he took us behind the scenes of Delta's massive airplane hospital.
00:41Let me put my bomb cap on. I look like somebody.
00:45Delta Tech Ops is a maintenance repair and overhaul, or MRO business.
00:50We do everything that you see on that aircraft.
00:53We have component maintenance, engine maintenance, and aircraft maintenance.
00:586,000 technicians can fix every inch of pretty much any commercial jet on the planet,
01:03from 150 other airlines, government organizations, and even military branches.
01:08Our job is basically just to maintain the aircraft and keep them safe.
01:11An aircraft ends up here if it's scheduled for maintenance or if something is wrong.
01:15And one of the biggest issues the team deals with is engine repairs.
01:19When that happens, there's $32 million on the line.
01:25First, a plane is grounded and then tugged into this giant hangar.
01:29We can have six wide bodies and six narrow bodies in simultaneously.
01:34So that's a lot of work that can be done in here at the same time.
01:38Technicians run a diagnosis for an engine problem.
01:41If they determine it needs fixing, it heads to the engine shop.
01:44This division of Tech Ops started in 1961, at the beginning of the jet age.
01:49Today, engine repair is the most expensive section of Tech Ops,
01:52with $100 million in new facilities just in the last two years.
01:56So the engines come into our shop and we take the engines apart completely.
02:00We inspect the parts and anything that we find wrong with them,
02:03we are able to repair those things before putting them back into the engine.
02:08These are very high-value parts, so repairing them is the most economical way to keep our engines flying.
02:14Before parts can be fixed up, they get a chemical bath.
02:17So most of the engine parts are cleaned in this area.
02:19If there's any contaminants on the blades or any of the parts of the aircraft,
02:23you want to make sure that's removed so you can get maximum performance of the engine because of the airflow.
02:28I used to work back here many years ago. I started back here.
02:32Next, the engine heads to one of seven bays in the engine shop.
02:35What's going on? How you doing?
02:38Why's everybody got a smile on their face? That's what I want to know.
02:41Y'all are like y'all happy. How you doing?
02:44Here, FAA licensed technicians work on and reassemble the engine.
02:49We have approximately 900 engines a year come through for various levels of maintenance.
02:55Those cover 14 different kinds of engines.
02:58I want to show everybody a BR715 engine.
03:00So this engine in particular is undergoing light maintenance where it doesn't get fully disassembled.
03:05Light maintenance takes anywhere from 15 to 35 days.
03:08Heavy maintenance, on the other hand...
03:10That's where we'd fully disassemble the engine, go into the internal areas of the engine,
03:15and basically refurbish the entire components associated with the engine.
03:20That can take over two months.
03:222,000 piece parts that have to be individually inspected and maintained.
03:27This engine is flying approximately five times a day.
03:30An engine remains on wing from anywhere from a few years to some of our engine types,
03:36as many as seven, eight, or nine years.
03:39So we want to take the opportunity while they're here to do everything that we can
03:43to ensure that they're reliable for the fleet.
03:45If an engine can stay in the air longer, it saves ZELTA and its customers money.
03:50Remember, these things are expensive, and so are all the parts that go into them.
03:55This part costs $12,000.
03:57And there's 80 of them.
03:58Add in the price of the surrounding parts and...
04:00We're looking at about $2.2 million sitting on the table.
04:03This is the highest technology portion of the engine.
04:07These blades operate at very high temperatures and very high stresses.
04:11These fan blades...
04:12Out of the latest generation Rolls-Royce Trent engines...
04:15Are made of precious metals and alloys, and cost hundreds of thousands of dollars each.
04:20So a modern jet engine is worth several million dollars.
04:25The maintenance of those is very, very important to maintaining the value of that asset.
04:30Only about 20% of all the engines fixed here are Deltas.
04:33The rest are for customers.
04:35That's probably UPS right there.
04:37We have Azure Gold Brazil and Virgin Australia engines.
04:42Repairing all these flying beasts takes a lot of skill and caution.
04:46Anything can kill you that we touch.
04:48Everything is stronger than us.
04:50Everything is heavier than us.
04:52You have to have your head in the game.
04:53You're looking at a 13,000-pound engine.
04:56Lifting something that heavy requires a lot of safety, coordination, teamwork, and attention to detail.
05:02But an engine that runs smoothly is just as important.
05:05There's no pulling over on the side of the road if there's a problem.
05:08They're 40,000 feet in the air.
05:10So nothing can go wrong.
05:12But it's an example of the precision and the very close tolerances that everything has to be built to
05:17because of how fast it all spins and how hot it all gets.
05:20We want you to get to your destination safely.
05:23And that's what this is all about.
05:24To keep track of the thousands of repairs and checks,
05:27technicians record every step of the disassembly, assembly, and inspection process on work cards.
05:32They also rely on fancy gear, from the laser welding equipment to the turbine grinder.
05:38That precision is necessary to ensure the efficiency of the engine when we return it to service.
05:44All this new equipment also means Delta can repair some of the most technologically advanced commercial engines in the world.
05:50That happens out in the newer facility, opened in 2018.
05:55Once technicians have restored all the parts, they converge back into one of the engine bays.
06:00Here they flip the engine vertically and start reassembling it.
06:03The core engine is complete at this point.
06:06And they're putting on all of those accessories and harnesses and piping on the outside of the engine.
06:13But before an engine can go back on a wing, there's one more step. Quality testing.
06:18That happens at the world's largest engine test cell.
06:21A short drive, or a bike ride, from the engine shops.
06:25You don't want to encounter problems while you're installing an engine on wing, so it comes to us.
06:30And we make sure everything's passed off and clear.
06:32This part of the building is where the engines come in.
06:35We install and rig the engine, so basically we put the test equipment on the engine and get it ready for it to run.
06:42And then this part of the engine is your actual test chambers.
06:45The test chamber is the newest addition to tech ops.
06:48And where the engines are test run, it can handle 150,000 pounds of thrust, even though no engine actually has that kind of power.
06:56Engineers run tests 24-7, monitoring engine performance from the control room.
07:01The reason we need 24-7 is because of the production coming out of the shops.
07:04So I can have three engines prepped and ready, but I got one test chamber.
07:08So, you know, we want to keep that test chamber running and keep it moving.
07:12So you want to get it in there, get it run, get it back out so we can move our next engine in.
07:16Once Ken's team signs off on the new engine, it's carted back to the hangar, secured on the wing, and tugged out for takeoff.
07:23As you see, there's a lot of things going on behind the scenes at the maintenance program.
07:29We're always constantly trying to work to make sure we're safe, effective, and proficient in what we do.
07:36That means once we get an aircraft in here, we're trying to make sure that we take care of everything that we need to take care of while it's down.
07:42So it can get out and fly. And when it comes back, we'll do it all over again.
07:49Hey guys, my name is Abby. I'm the producer on this video.
07:52Since we visited TechOps back in February, obviously things have changed a lot.
07:57And TechOps has been operating this whole time, but things look a little different.
08:01Mandatory temperature checks, PPE, and social distancing on the floor.
08:05But I know a lot of big businesses are changing with the times.
08:09So let me know what you want to see in the next episode of Big Business.
08:12And make sure to hit the subscribe button so you don't miss out.
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