Duncan Aviation’s highly regarded Engineering & Certification Services department has established a new team of professionals who are available for projects throughout the aerospace industry. Our team members have always been available to assist other companies on an as-needed basis. This team of experienced professionals is dedicated solely to supporting external requests for engineering and certification.
Certification Coordinator Aaron Lane, with nearly 17 years of experience at Duncan Aviation, will manage the projects and provide direction and guidance for the team.
"I’m looking forward to directing our focus outward and engaging with even more industry players from around the globe. Duncan Aviation has years of experience getting things done for our customers, and we intend to leverage this new team to its fullest," says Aaron. "From the cabin to the cockpit, from components to systems, we have what it takes to provide intelligent engineering and certification services to the industry at large."
"This team will work exclusively on projects for customers throughout the aviation industry, while our current engineering team continues to serve Duncan Aviation core customers."
–Shawn Carraher, Certifications Program Manager
Collectively, this new team has more than 50 years of engineering and certification experience. In the last four years, the Engineering & Certification team at Duncan Aviation has completed 11 new and amended STCs for external customers, with two additional in progress, and there are more than a dozen new proposals for STCs (Supplemental Type Certificates) in the initial stages.
With an exemplary history of safety and compliance, our Engineering & Certification team members have worked on aircraft systems and structures and approved design changes for interiors/airframe modifications and system installations and upgrades for more than 20 years. This experience allows members of this new team to recognize, manage, and mitigate risks for clients.
"As time and personnel have allowed, we’ve helped other companies work through certification issues and develop STCs," says Shawn Carraher, Manager of Certification Programs in Lincoln, Nebraska. "Now, though, increased demand throughout the aerospace industry has shown a greater need for qualified engineering and certification professionals. As a result, this team will work exclusively on projects for customers throughout the aviation industry, while our current Engineering team continues to serve Duncan Aviation’s core customers."
"There’s a great need in the industry for engineering and certification services, and we are in a position to help fill that gap," says Michael Hill, Enterprise Manager of Engineering Services. "Call it altrusim if you will, but we see a need in the industry, and we know Duncan Aviation’s Engineering & Certification Team has the ability, experience and knowledge to help. We feel that by helping the industry, we’re also helping our customers."
Duncan Aviation’s Manager of Certification Services, Shawn Carraher, oversees the APT (Alterations Planning Team), Engineering Schedulers, and the new team dedicated to Engineering & Certification projects solely for external customers.
Among his many passions as a child—reading, movies, and LEGOs—Shawn believes his interest in LEGOs and Star Wars put him on the path to engineering. He has seen the 1977 Star Wars movie (Episode IV) at least 80 times, and has seen all eight movies at least three times (some of them many more times than that).
"I even used LEGOs for a college project," says Shawn. "We had to transfer two ping pong balls and a golf ball 20 feet in the fastest time possible. We had a small electric motor and a AA battery; all our materials had to fit within a shoe box and be assembled as part of the time trial, so using LEGOs made perfect sense."