STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- Tarmac Aerosave recycles disused aircraft at its plant in southern France
- Airbus says around 9,000 planes will be retired or withdrawn from service over the next 20 years
- Tarmac believes recycling old aircraft could save airlines considerable amounts of money
Tarbes, France (CNN) -- Noses sliced off, fuselages
without wings and cockpits stripped down to the bare bone; the giant
hangar at the home of Tarmac Aerosave is where aged airplanes meet their
end.
But amidst this scene of
industrial destruction rises a triumph of recycling reincarnation, says
Sebastien Medan, head of dismantling at the French aerospace company.
"We receive an old aircraft ... and completion of this work (is) when all the material can be reused," says Medan.
Tarmac Aerosave has been
dismantling disused aircraft at its base in "Aerospace Valley" -- a
cluster of French flight engineering firms near the town of Tarbes in
southern France -- since it was formed in 2009. Although the company's
primary business remains aircraft storage, it has stripped 12 planes
completely since its inception.
The parts salvaged during
this process are repackaged and repurposed. Landing gear and wing flaps
are shipped out to be reinstalled in new planes while cockpits are
reborn as flight simulators. All parts that are saved can be sold on by
the aircraft owners. The remaining waste and scrap metal, meanwhile, is
broken down for resale by Tarmac.
"The percentage of the aircraft to be recycled is around 87% (and) actually we expect to rise that to 90%" says Medan.
With Tarmac's parent company, Airbus, predicting that more than 9,000
aircraft will be retired or withdrawn from service over the next 20
years, there's a clear need for aging planes to be disposed of in an
environmentally friendly.
By relieving retired
models of their most valuable assets, Tarmac also believes it can
transform airplane recycling into a lucrative business and one that
makes sense for airlines looking to dispose of old models.
The cost of storing a
disused aircraft can cost as much as €20,000 ($25,000) per month. This
compares to a one-off cost of between €100,000 and €150,000 (between
$125,000 and $185,000) to tear down a plane, stripping it of items that
can be reused or sold on at a profit.
"All the materials we
take out from each aircraft could be used in other industry, especially
aeronautical industry," says Medan.
While the efficiency
savings this process brings are obvious, Tarmac also believe that
dismantling old planes will allow engineers to better design more
efficient aircraft in the future. By understanding how parts erode,
decay or develop over time it will allow them to transfer that knowledge
into new designs.
"We are collecting in
service aircraft components to asses the remaining characteristics and
capability in terms of stress and fatigue," says Olivier Malavallon,
project director of business development and change at Airbus.
"It's crucial in terms
of experienced feedback in better designing the aircraft and providing
to the designer some guidance -- how best we can assemble things
together where things are fitting better."
As it stands, Tarmac's
site in southern France can cater for 20 aircraft at a time, the company
says. Across the border in northern Spain however, a new site is being
prepared by one of the company's subsidiaries. It will be able to store
200 planes at a time, and strip down between 30 and 40 models a year.
According to Malavallon
this expansion will enable Tarmac to prepare for the coming influx of
retiring planes. It will also ensure aircraft are disposed of in a way
that is efficient and makes the most of valuable materials.
Instead of "going from cradle to grave," he says, airplanes will go from "cradle to cradle."
Read more and photos: http://edition.cnn.com/2012/06/15/business/airplane-recycling-tarmac/index.html
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