A Gulfstream V received a fresh coat of paint during an Open House ceremony for Duncan Aviation’s newest expansion, an $11.5 million, 45,000-square-foot paint shop at the Lincoln, Neb., facility, recently. The new facility allows input of some of the largest business aircraft in use today, including Gulfstream’s 650, Bombardier’s Global Express, Dassault’s Falcon 7X and Embraer’s Legacy. “Our smaller paint hangar was 22 years old and just wasn’t big enough to accommodate the aircraft our customers now fly,” says Aaron Hilkemann, president of Duncan Aviation.
The GV was the first ultra long-range business jet painted in the facility and the timing just happened to work with the company’s planned customer and public open house event, which attracted roughly 100 attendees from several states. “In addition to a larger footprint for larger aircraft,” Hilkemann continues, “the new facility has the latest in down-draft airflow technology, including automatic monitoring and alarms. Combined with the expertise of our paint specialists, we have created the best environment possible for clean and long-lasting paint protection on aircraft. “The facility is also designed to increase efficiency. With multiple bays and curtains, we can accommodate multiple aircraft at once, utilizing a two-zone airflow system. With this design, Duncan Aviation paint teams can perform stripping, sanding, painting and detail work on multiple aircraft simultaneously.”
Hilkemann says the new facility follows on the heels of other innovative paint developments by Duncan Aviation.
Early last year, Duncan Aviation began using a chrome-free paint process. The process is safer and better for the environment, the painters and the aircraft. The company was one of the first independent facilities in the industry to make the switch to chrome-free products. Also, late last year, Duncan Aviation began offering customers the option to work with three-dimensional renderings while collaborating with Duncan Design on their aircraft exterior paint schemes. Duncan says the design tool helps clients better visualize how a design will wrap around an aircraft before a paint scheme is actually applied.