The place where dead airplanes come back to life
TARBES. June 16. KAZINFORM Noses sliced off, fuselages without wings and cockpits stripped down to the bare bone; the giant hangar at the home of Tarmac Aerosave is where aged airplanes meet their end, CNN reported.
But amidst this scene of industrial destruction rises a triumph of recycling reincarnation, says Sebastien Medan, head of dismantling at the French aerospace company.
"We receive an old aircraft ... and completion of this work (is) when all the material can be reused," says Medan.
Tarmac Aerosave has been dismantling disused aircraft at its base in "Aerospace Valley" -- a cluster of French flight engineering firms near the town of Tarbes in southern France -- since it was formed in 2009. Although the company's primary business remains aircraft storage, it has stripped 12 planes completely since its inception.
The parts salvaged during this process are repackaged and repurposed. Landing gear and wing flaps are shipped out to be reinstalled in new planes while cockpits are reborn as flight simulators. All parts that are saved can be sold on by the aircraft owners. The remaining waste and scrap metal, meanwhile, is broken down for resale by Tarmac.
"The percentage of the aircraft to be recycled is around 87% (and) actually we expect to rise that to 90%" says Medan.
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