Out with the old
Obsolescence is a constant challenge in aerospace and defence as aircraft can be operational for several decades.
The aerospace industry does not like change. It prefers to stick with what it knows and with what it knows works. Even minor modifications can be expensive, major modifications may require recertification. But aircraft have exceptionally long service lives, over 30 years, maybe longer if they are converted to freighters.
Take the Airbus A320 Family programme as an example. It was announced in March 1984, the first flight taking place in February 1987 and the first delivery in April 1988. The A320neo Family launched in 2010 and the latest variant, the A321XLR, in 2019, a mere 35 years later. As at January 2026, the programme had accumulated around 12,500 deliveries and had a healthy backlog of around 6,500 aircraft, so it will be a very long time before the type finally disappears.
As a result, it is inevitable that items will become obsolete or dropped by manufacturers as no longer viable. Fortunately, there are some specialists around that can offer a replacement service.
ONTIC
Brian Sartain, COO of Ontic, explains that his company specialises in taking over products from OEMs where those products are no longer considered as core to their business. This can be for a number of reasons, including declining numbers of aircraft to support or a focus on newer technology or other strategic priorities. A combination of all can also apply. He points out that only about 75% of forecast aircraft retirements actually happen on schedule and, for a while, a few years ago, it was about 50%. That means older aircraft staying in service longer as manufactures try to increase production rates and because of a mixture of technical problems, especially with engines, on newer types.
As an aside, he says the Boeing B-52 Stratofortress looks likely to be the first 100-year aircraft (it first flew 74 years ago), but the GE CF6-80C2 engine will probably stop production this year, after 40 years, with the completion of the USAF Boeing KC-767 tanker programme. It will be in service for some time to come and Ontic has been involved with it for many years. He adds Airbus Helicopters, Embraer, Leonardo and Safran Landing Systems as some of the other major OEMs supported by Ontic.
Ontic comes into play by purchasing the intellectual property rights or agreeing a licence agreement with the original manufacturer, taking over the full production, from engineering and drawings to customer and supplier relationships and so becomes the OEM of record and to support the aftermarket as well by honouring existing contracts with customers. This is more than just ‘build to print,’ he points out.
Given challenges in the industry, Ontic has more than doubled in size over the last five years, both in revenue and employees, because of the way they’re able to take on – and resolve – these challenges, increasing demand for their services.
Another factor in older equipment (as opposed to aircraft) staying in service longer is that the OEMs are not developing clean sheet aircraft.
He says the OEMs are really looking at completely electric aircraft, which means Ontic can look forward to increased demand for hydraulic, electromechanical and pneumatic work from today’s fleets that keep running for many years to come. Instead, they have focused on derivatives, such as Airbus A320ceo/neo and Boeing 737NG/MAX, which are far less expensive to continue to certify.
However, clean sheet aircraft will come and so a lot those technologies will naturally be replaced. He points to electrification, with the 787 as the pioneer. He says the OEMs are really looking at completely electric aircraft, which means Ontic can look forward to increased demand for hydraulic, electromechanical and pneumatic work from today’s fleets that keep running for many years to come.
Increased demand to support aircraft production rates has also led to a change in the way the company works. Previously seen as a ‘legacy parts’ manufacturer, it now operates as an OEM, supporting new aircraft on the production line as well as keeping out of production aircraft flying. Its whole ethos, he says, is to support a ‘lifetime of flight’.
Having the IP also means it can introduce modifications where necessary to modernise or overcome piece part obsolescence issues that benefit the market, although he says Ontic will never develop new products that would compete with those of its partners that sold the IP. Instead, it uses its experience of the problems that occur in the field to find opportunities. One example is Boeing 777 fuel probes. It made design improvements to rectify specific feedback from customers and are now able to offer these updates as a reliability improvement retrofit to some of the major 777 carriers, who have been very receptive.
There is one challenge with working with older equipment – Ontic can often find it has obsolescence problems of its own, particularly small electromechanical devices like pressure switches, potentiometers, and rotors in electric motors. In those cases Ontic often has to develop new sources or manufacture the elements themselves. Micro-Electronics are another common obsolescence challenge where the typical solution is to replace a discrete obsolete component (most of which were developed in the mid to late 1980s), with a daughter board and design the same functionality with newer technologies.
Since then, they have gone from being largely manufactured in high cost economies to very low cost economies and, when that happens, the portfolio gets thinned out. Given the extremely low numbers involved in aerospace compared to other industrial products, that is one of the most likely areas to be cut, making it one of the most challenging areas for Ontic to continue to maintain things like weather radar, TCAS, satnav and radios.
In fact, Ontic tends to have four or five major ‘reverse engineering’ projects each year that require a level of redesign and, as it is aviation, even something as simple as a knob in the cockpit can actually be quite complicated. This is because it has to look and behave in exactly the same way as the original, so pilots do not suddenly find themselves with the same switch feeling different to previous aircraft they flew.
Actually, there are a few programmes where production is restarting after a significant period of dormancy, because the market has determined that they still want these items.
Of course, there is an inherent risk in deciding to take over a redundant product but, says Sartain, Ontic has significant experience in this area. It has developed a high mix, low volume business model that looks at the life cycle of an aircraft and of the technologies that are involved and builds a forecast of what will support the industry best. With long standing relationships with Tier 1 and Tier 2 OEMs, the company actively works with these partners to suggest product lines where Ontic can add value.
Because of the wide range of products involved, Ontic’s facilities are set up in such a manner that they can be quickly adapted to meet demand. Those facilities are in the UK (Cheltenham, Staverton, Tewkesbury, Bolton) US (Chatsworth, CA, Creedmoor, NC, Plainview, NY, Miramar, FL) and Singapore.
However, for projects like the 777 fuel probe, he says airlines with large commercial fleets are looking for 20-day turnaround times. That requires a dedicated MRO approach, which is why the company is investing over $30 million to start up two new MRO facilities with more expected to follow. This decision was made to provide customers with service improvements that better meet the unique requirements of active parts.
In October 2025, it opened its first MRO facility in Miramar, Florida. The new $10 million, 64,000sq ft site brings together all the US-based MRO teams, equipment and processes under one roof, with an in-house paint room, vibration-testing, machine shop, and portable dark room, providing support across electro-mechanical, avionics, actuation and hydraulics. An additional 12,000sq ft is available for expansion.
In August 2025, work started on renovations to a new, dedicated 64,000sq ft MRO facility in Tewkesbury. This will do the same for all the UK MRO teams, with the first product lines expected to transfer in March before it becomes fully operational by Q4 2026. The facility includes pneumatic and hydraulic infrastructure, avionics workshop with ISO7 Clean room, non-destructive testing (NDT), a machine shop and a dark room, with significant additional footprint for future expansion.
Customers in Asia are supported through the Singapore Service Center.
Rochester Electronics
Stephen Morris, General Manager EMEA at Rochester Electronics, explains that the 45-year old US-based company is the world’s largest source of semiconductors, with over 15 billion devices in stock covering more than 200,000 part numbers. It has had a presence in Europe for about 18 years, with facilities in France, Germany, Italy, Poland and the UK. Other locations include China, Japan, Mexico and Singapore.
Luke Fitzpatrick, Director of Aerospace & Defence, adds that the company is involved in automotive, industrial, medical and transportation markets but aerospace and defence is probably the biggest market for the company, especially commercial aviation. For the US side of the company, that means Boeing, For the EMEA side, that principally means Airbus, although it also works with major suppliers like Safran and Thales.
Commercial aviation accounts for 70% of revenue , the other 30% coming from defence activities, particularly with Eurofighter Typhoon and the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II.
The reason for the level of commercial aviation business, he says, is that the likes of Airbus and Boeing control their own destiny and are willing to invest in a solution to extend the life of an electronic system because that is going to safeguard their programme for the next 30 years.
With defence, the supply chain is long and so is the time to take decisions and allocate funding. That often leaves them with no choice but to redesign systems, although on some of the defence systems this can be seen as a revenue stream for them.
Another reason is the inherently conservative nature of the industry. There is a tendency, if something works, to keep using it. With such long service lives for aircraft, obsolescence is inevitable.
The company’s approach, he explains, goes far beyond simply supplying components. By understanding when a manufacturer plans to declare a product obsolete, it can proactively engage with both the customer and the OEM. For example, the customer may secure the next few years’ worth of stock they think they are going to need with the manufacturer and talk to Rochester much more strategically about a longer-term plan beyond their Last Time Buy. Rochester’s longer term strategy could mean them assuming control of the tooling, acquiring the test IP, and agreeing a license agreement ensuring long-term continuity of supply by manufacturing the devices at Rochester’s facilities whilst at the same time aligning commercial interests across all parties.
Going back 50 years, aerospace and defence was driving the latest technology for the semiconductor industry. Right now, it is consumer goods like mobile telephones, and, increasingly, AI. Aerospace and defence generates very low levels of demand so manufacturers obviously focus on the larger markets, which means they are more likely to drop product lines. He says annual demand for some Typhoon components is just 23 units, about a third of the current Airbus production rate per month, which is still a small demand for components.
The situation is unlikely to change any time soon as the next generation of all new aircraft is some way off. That means existing systems will continue to be used with a constantly rolling programme of components becoming obsolete. He points out that even new projects like the COMAC C919 in China still use current generation systems, often from Western sources.
Force Technologies
Charlotte Hughes, Commercial Director at Force Technologies, explains the UK-based company has 40 years of experience in replacing semiconductors, like field-programmable gate arrays (FPGA) and ultraviolet Electrically Erasable and Programmable Read Only Memory (UVEPROM), that have gone out of production. It specialises in aerospace and defence applications, working internationally across fighter aircraft and larger, multi-purpose aircraft. The intention is to provide Form, Fit and Function or a one to one chip replacement so the customer does not have to invest in a costly and lengthy redesign of the component.
Unfortunately, with defence especially, it can take decades from planning something to reaching the prototype stage and then into production, so, she explains, customers may often be firefighting obsolescence before they have even made the first delivery. And then there is the long service life of these aircraft, so the problems continue. In addition, even at this component level, aerospace and defence are not interesting sectors for semiconductor manufacturers as demand and volume are comparatively low, so they would prefer to focus on AI, electric vehicles and consumer electronics for example. Typically, Force will get involved with a project three to five years after entry into service.
Because obsolescence is so widespread, she adds that, within each platform, there are sub-platforms that need to be looked after, so the company gets involved with multiple components across many different aircraft types. That leads to increasing demand every year.
As well as providing Form, Fit, Function replacements, the company does offer redesign services and any IP considerations are checked by Force’s legal team before the project starts. She notes that, as Force deals with obsolete products on older platforms, sometimes the IP restrictions have expired.
Hughes explains that Force aims to produce the most long-term, most economical solution for customers, so they do not have obsolescence issues again. This means a lot of effort is put into the engineering solution provided to ensure longevity, technical suitability, and cost-effectiveness. Some replacements are still going after 20 years. However, it can also be the case that another component on the same integrated circuit board becomes obsolete so another solution is needed for the same project.
Another way the company helps customers to manage the volatile semiconductor market is with storage for semiconductor die, packages and assembled components. It has a dedicated temperature and humidity controlled building to store parts, with nitrogen purged cabinets. This prevents component damage and degradation from issues such as oxidation and electrostatic discharge.
Finally, Hughes says one huge problem in the obsolescence world that needs to flagged up is counterfeit chips. First port of call for programme managers or engineers tends to be the ‘grey market’, independent stockists who have acquired inventory from a range of sources. She says the counterfeiters are getting smarter and it is quite worrying that fake parts are even slipping into OEMs.
By Ian Harbison
