Parts distribution and aftermarket

This category is for the companies that stock, document and ship aircraft parts. A company that manufactures an approved replacement part belongs in the PMA guide, a company that repairs one belongs in MRO, and a company that dismantles aircraft for serviceable material belongs in teardown. A distributor's product is custody: what it received, from whom, how it stored it, and what paperwork leaves with the part. Every question below is a question about that chain.

The accreditation, and exactly what it covers

Distributor accreditation is voluntary and the FAA publishes which quality system standards it accepts, alongside the organisation behind each: ASA-100 from the Aviation Suppliers Association, ISO 9001 through certification bodies accredited by International Accreditation Forum signatories, and the AS9100, AS9110 and AS9120 family from the International Aerospace Quality Group, whose certified organisations are listed in the industry's own database.¹ The accreditation list itself is public. The FAA has designated the Aviation Suppliers Association as the database manager for companies seeking accreditation under the advisory circular, and the database publishes each company's address, the standard it holds and the expiry date of its certification.² Read what that proves. It proves a company has an accreditation record to a named standard, and the association states plainly that it verifies only that the required documentation was submitted in the manner the advisory circular sets out.² It does not vouch for any individual part.

The rule underneath the paperwork

The regulation on replacement and modification articles is short and it decides most disputes. A person who knows an article is likely to be installed on a type certificated product may only produce it under a type certificate, under an FAA production approval, as a standard part made to a government or industry specification, as a commercial part, by an owner or operator for their own product, by an appropriately rated certificate holder where it is consumed in a repair, or in another manner the FAA approves.³ Anyone outside the first two of those may not represent the part as suitable for installation on a type certificated product.³ So the question to a distributor is not "is this a good part". It is: which of those routes produced it, and what document shows that.

What the record catches

The FAA investigates every suspected unapproved parts report it receives and publishes unapproved parts notifications when it determines a part is unapproved, which are worth subscribing to rather than discovering.⁴ The same programme points at the register that answers the everyday question: approved replacement part listings are searchable in the FAA's regulatory system by holder, by article name or number, by approval basis, and by the make and model the part may be installed on.⁴ That is the check to run before you accept a substitution offered on a shortage.

Questions that sort distributors

Ask what documentation comes with the part, from which source, and whether the trace runs to a manufacturer or stops at a trader. Ask how shelf life, storage environment and electrostatic-sensitive handling are controlled, and ask to see the storage area. Ask what the return terms are on a part that arrives with paperwork that does not match. Ask how an aircraft on ground request is handled at two in the morning, and who signs for the decision.

The companies below are listed on public facts, each with its source linked.