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Hartzell acquires Meggitt’s South Wind heater business

“Thousands of owners are affected by the recent issuance of FAA AD 2017-06-03, which mandates that any aircraft equipped with a South Wind heater perform a series of inspections within the next 10-hours of heater operating time or next scheduled maintenance activity, whichever occurs first,” Disbrow said.

“Meggitt/South Wind has not produced a complete cabin heater since then owner Stewart-Warner moved the business to Troy, Indiana in 1989. As a result, many of the components, including the original combustion tubes, are no longer available,” he said. “HET’s acquisition of the existing inventory, intellectual property, tooling and rights to produce the South Wind line of heaters will enable us to put needed parts back in production and support the South Wind heaters, which will ultimately benefit these owners.”

Disbrow explained that while all new South Wind heater production will be integrated with the company’s current Janitrol Aero line of cabin heaters in Montgomery, Alabama, HET will need to obtain FAA TSO approval before the new components can be put into production.

“FAA TSO’s (Technical Standard Orders) have to be transferred from one production facility to another by the FAA,” he said. “As a current holder of FAA TSO-C20 Combustion Heater approval, we have an advantage as we are simply requesting the addition of the South Wind models to our existing TSO. Once we have that, we can start producing the needed parts and make them available to aircraft owners.”

Until then, aircraft owners with affected South Wind cabin heaters can replace them with new FAA STC’d and/or PMA’d Janitrol Aero cabin heaters from Hartzell Engine Technologies. For more information, visit: www.Janitrol.Aero/SouthWind.