Wheels and Brakes
Founded as a propeller overhaul facility, Hope Aero has broadened its skills and expertise to include aviation wheel and brake overhaul and service – a specialty that shares many of the same processes, skills and equipment. With more than 20 years of experience across a wide range of wheel and brake manufacturers and aircraft including military and vintage aircraft, Hope Aero is now the country’s leading component overhaul specialist in this sector. Our shop can currently turn 80 wheels and brakes per day and has the capacity to increase this capacity to meet demand. We also assemble new wheels for aircraft manufacturers to support their new aircraft assembly line.
Wheels
Wheels arriving for overhaul are first thoroughly cleaned using a number of different methods. A high-pressure wheel washer is used for primary cleaning, which is often sufficient. Other components may be plastic media blasted (to clean without pitting) or cleansed using an ultrasonic bath. Non-ferrous parts are eddy current inspected (ECI) and/or liquid penetrant inspected (LPI). Ferrous parts go through magnetic particle inspection (MPI). Finished components are epoxy painted and oven-baked for added durability. Wheel build machines give precise control of the critical wheel assembly process. Small wheels are assembled on our purpose-built hydraulic wheel build machine. Large wheels are reassembled on a dedicated Bauer Howden wheel building machine that aligns components and ensures accurate torqueing of all the bolts. Torque settings are computer controlled to ensure reassembly tolerances are better than specifications. The investment in these specialty machines improves the quality of the final product and saves a lot of technician time.
The Hope Aero wheel team has experience across a wide range of manufacturers, and regularly services all sizes of wheels, from small general aviation to the venerable Hercules aircraft.
Wheel Manufacturers
- Beechcraft
- Cleveland (Parker)
- Collins Aerospace (B.F. Goodrich)
- Dunlop
- Honeywell Aircraft Landing Systems (Allied Signal-Bendix)
- Meggit Aircraft Braking Systems
- Safran Landing Systems (Messier Bugatti Dowty)
Brakes
After more than 20 years repairing and overhauling brakes for the aviation industry, Hope Aero has extensive experience and hands-on expertise servicing virtually every brake type from every manufacturer, both mineral oil and Skydrol-based systems.
After being disassembled and cleaned, brake rotors are weighed and measured for minimum weight and thickness. Discs that have become warped from excessive heat are straightened as required to ensure smooth, consistent braking. Rotors are ground to remove high spots. The brake housing, torque tube, pressure plate and stationary discs are media blasted before being extensively inspected by our expert NDT inspection team. Brake housings are painted with epoxy paint and oven baked to ensure a durable protective finish.
In sub-assembly, the pressure plate, torque tube and stationary discs are re-padded, and the heat stack is checked against minimum height specs. For final assembly, the refinished housing and heat stack are reassembled and torqued to specification, and the adjusters are set, torqued and locked. All brakes are pressure checked for operation and leakage. As with everything we do at Hope Aero, we consider minimum tolerances to be merely a starting point, and we constantly strive to meet tighter specs than the minimums allowed. Finer tolerances translate directly into better performance and a better passenger experience, as well as longer TBO times.
The Hope Aero brake team has experience across a wide range of manufacturers, and regularly services all types of brakes.