Geometra exports Tucano parts to England
Valor Econômico 05/07/2009
Geometra, a company headquartered in São José dos Campos (SP), has just closed its first contract for the export of landing gear replacement parts of the EMB-312 Tucano airplane to England. The qualification of Geometra as a Tucano landing gear supplier, task previously carried out by Embraer, original maker of the airplane, was possible due to a partnership entered into between Geometra and the Logistics Aeronautics Center (CELOG), which invested R$ 3 million (US$ 1.36 million) in the project of industrialization of the equipment.
Thanks to that partnership, Geometra is also about to close the sale of the entire system of such landing gear to the Colombian Air Force, which has 14 Tucano airplanes in its fleet. The Colombian airplanes, according to the CEO of Geometra, Luiz Paulo Junqueira, will start a modernization program coordinated by Embraer. The project includes changes to the airplane structure and a strengthening of the wing. The development of the landing gear by Geometra was an alternative the FAB (Brazilian Air Force) found to assure the supply of the system for its fleet as well as for the operators of the airplane all over the world, who were facing problems with the shortage of spare parts. The project of the new Tucano landing gear, according to the director of the CELOG, Brigadier Edgard de Oliveira Júnior, was improved and then incubated in Geometra, which became responsible for the development of the industrial process. After all that work was concluded, the landing gear was submitted to resistance testing in the laboratories of the Aeronautics Technological Center (CTA), in São José dos Campos, until it got to the stage of certification.