Galleys and galley inserts

This category covers galley structures and the inserts that live in them: ovens, beverage makers, chillers, trolleys and the stowages around them. Seats are a separate guide, and so are lavatories and cabin lighting. The reason galleys sit on their own shelf is that a buyer is really purchasing two different engineering problems from one supplier, and the failure modes are unrelated.

The structure has to hold under load

Means must be provided to prevent each item of mass in a passenger or crew compartment or galley from becoming a hazard by shifting under the flight, ground and emergency landing load conditions the rules specify.¹ That single requirement drives the galley's monument structure, its tie-downs, the trolley latches and the stowage design. Ask for the loads the galley was substantiated to and the configuration it was tested in. Ask what the maximum loaded mass is per compartment and what happens to the certification if your catering plan exceeds it. Compartment interior materials also carry flammability requirements, so ask which material standards the panels, laminates and inserts were shown against.² Ask for the burn certificates on the actual materials in your configuration, not a generic file.

The inserts are appliances

An insert that is approved as an article may hold a technical standard order authorisation, which is a design and production approval issued to the manufacturer of an article shown to meet the standard.³ The FAA states the limit: holding one is not an approval to install and use the article on an aircraft.⁴ The installation, and any change to the galley to accept it, is a change to type design, and a major change by someone who does not hold the type certificate needs a supplemental type certificate.⁵ Ask which inserts carry which approvals, who owns the installation approval, and whether swapping a chiller for another brand later is a paperwork exercise or a project.

Reliability is measured in the cabin, not the lab

Galley inserts fail in service more often than most cabin equipment because they are used hard by people in a hurry. Ask for the removal rate per thousand flight hours from an operator's fleet, with the fleet size. Ask what the mean time to repair is and whether the unit is repaired on wing, at the line station or at a shop. Ask about spares: latches, seals, door handles, heating elements, the parts that actually break. Ask what the power draw is at the aircraft, because a galley load that exceeds the electrical budget becomes an electrical power project. Ask about weight, per unit and per shipset, and what the supplier has done about it in the last two model years.

Where the record can be checked

Approval claims are checkable: technical standard order authorisations and supplemental type certificates are published with their holders and coverage.⁴ The register proves what is approved and on which aircraft. It does not prove that the oven works at your galley's voltage, that the trolleys you already own will fit, or that the supplier's lead time survives a large order.

Questions that sort suppliers

Ask for the substantiation loads and the flammability certificates for your configuration. Ask for reliability data with the operator fleet size attached. Ask what the shipset weight is and how it compares with the incumbent. Ask what the lead time is for a spare door latch, today.