Some of Victoria's aerospace success stories

Avalon Airport

Avalon Airport now hosts two domestic airlines, Tiger and Jetstar, as well as the long-established biennial Australian International Airshow. The Lindsay Fox-owned airport has recently expanded the terminal to allow for Tiger’s operations from 10 November last year; and tripled the tarmac parking to avoid any conflict between the Airshow and commercial operations.

Avalon Airport has just signed a long term agreement with the Victorian Government to be a possible location for hosting the Airshow until 2025.

Airport CEO Justin Giddings sees the advent of Tiger as a major breakthrough: “Tiger Airways are currently operating up to seven flights per day, so overnight we doubled our capacity to around 13 flights per day, which equates to around 1.4 million passengers per annum. We’re hoping that we can get to around 20 flights per day by the end of 2011. Twenty flights per day, or two million people a year, would make us a significantly larger airport, and we think that we should be able to achieve maybe 15 to 20 per cent of the Melbourne domestic market in the next five to 10 years.

“And that’s just by the natural growth. One of the big benefits of Avalon is its location. We’re well away from houses so we don’t have the issues associated with noise on the surrounding community, however, we are in the vicinity of the fastest growing areas of Melbourne and Australia. Wyndham is just 18 minutes away and Geelong is 20 minutes away, so we’re very happy that we’re close to those guys. Being associated with the Great Ocean Road has been important to us as well.

“We have firm international endeavours. The Commonwealth Government has pledged their support and we’re hoping that we can achieve the first flight in the next couple of years.

“We recently undertook an economic impact statement and that found that every flight into Avalon produces around $24,600 in visitor spending for the region; that equates to over $300,000 per day or $125 million per annum that we’re generating for the region.

“And the new Victorian Government has already signalled significant support for Avalon Airport. Recently Mr Ballieu pledged to fund a rail link and fuel pipeline into Avalon. So there’s a lot of reason for optimism over the next few years.”

 

Global Repair Services

In late 2009 a Global Aviation Interiors business PAIG sent one of its leaders, Brent Collins, to close a local interiors operation in Melbourne. However, Collins recognised that the operation and the service it offered the region was strategic and went on to propose the purchase of capability which was accepted and ’Global Repair Services’ was born.

“I saw inherent capability the operation presented the region and found a vehicle, via the Victorian Government’s Aviation and Commercial Aerospace Group, of likeminded people, investors who were passionate about aviation,” says Brent Collins. “We basically saved a number of people facing financial worries and new careers whilst keeping independent capability in the region that I saw as key.

“Global Repair Services has nose to tail interior capability interested in new projects working strategically with the Aviation industry to reduce costs and lead time for product and/or service, but importantly delivered under a collaborative one-stop shop model.

“What I mean by this is simply the sum is greater than its individual parts. There are many businesses that perform elements of different fields within aviation here in Australia but it seems everyone is happy it stays this way, except as I see it the airline. We are proposing to drive a vehicle where the whole supply chain collaborates, not competes, to present a greater good to end client ’the sum is greater’. Too much product is going overseas when the capability combined is here on the doorstep. We believe time is right to stop the tide flowing away from Australia but towards.” “Too many people who tried to discourage the formation of Global stated the Australian market is just too small. I see it differently, there is plenty of volume and opportunities being presented daily, we here in Australia need to work together to grow the collective pie of business and not look at the size today and compete to have a small slice of it.

“Global has four arms to its business currently; maintenance and manufacture (CASA approved CAR30 and 21), spares distribution, 3PL, and Parts Trading. We have already successfully supported a number of the main airlines in region on AOG situations, but importantly not on interior product but exterior which shows our desire to support totally.

“But I come back to my main point, we are here to grow the market through collaboration and should not be seen in any way as a threat to local business but an opportunity to work with on a joint win business bid programme to end client.

“We should proactively be growing our market and see our main competitors as international business not a company round the corner. If we keep operating and focussing like this we ultimately lose the battle and a very strategic business sector here in Australia.”

 

Marand Precision Engineering

Marand has been in the aerospace field for 20 years, mainly as a tooling and equipment supplier to aerostructure manufacturers in Australia and overseas. Marand’s Managing Director David Ellul says that, “Over the last two years we’ve been working with Lockheed Martin and BAE for us to move into supplying aerostructures on the JSF program. We are establishing a new site in the Geelong regionwhere we will be assembling the vertical tails for the JSF aircraft as a second sourcesupplier.” “Each pair of vertical tails will be delivered to the Lockheed Martin final assembly line in Ft. Worth Texas, ready to attach to the empennage. This will be a great achievement for Marand and also Australia, with these tails being a significant part of the aircraft. Once these planes are in the sky we can all say, us Aussies made those tails.”“With our involvement in the JSF program, Marand has become a global supplier for tooling. We have proven that we’re globally competitive and deliver tolling that goes beyond the customer’s requirements.”“On the back of the Vertical Tail project we are growing a new aerostructures business. We have worked very closely with the Victorian Government over the last three years and they have been a major supporter of Marand, trying to help us get where we need to go.” “We see the next four to five years being a very exciting time for Marand, expanding from its traditional business into new markets. We believe the sky’s the limit.”

 

Cablex

Cablex is a privately owned SME based in Melbourne, which has strategically moved from being a traditional electronics-based manufacturing outfit to an aerospace-based company integrated into the global supply chains of major OEMs around the world.

“Northrop Grumman in the US, Eurocopter in France and Airbus Military in Spain are the three major customers we’ve got,” says the company’s Vice President for Business Development, Rakesh Singh. “Cablex has supplied harnesses into major platforms like Wedgetail, the ARH and MRH-90 military helicopters and the Airbus A330 air-to-air refueler (tanker) conversion program. In the coming years, Cablex expects significant business from its involvement in the Joint Striker Fighter (JSF) program.”

“Also in the last three or four years we have been focusing on the global harness manufacturing market rather than just Australia. As part of Business Plan, recently we have established a low-cost manufacturing base in India to allow us to become globally competitive. We have commenced electronics based manufacturing over there and as it settles down, some of the aerospace work will be transferred. This enables us to target the Indian domestic market as well which is projected to grow significantly in the next three to five years.”

“Our strength really lies in the people. Cablex invests a lot of resources into training people. Being involved in a niche market, it is difficult to find operational staff with relevant skills. Hence we recruit people with some electrical background and then train them internally according to international workmanship and customer specific standards. The training is integral to our success.”

 

GippsAero

Airvan manufacturer GippsAero was acquired by Indian business interests in July last year and that has rapidly led to an enhanced global marketing scenario.

GippsAero’s CEO Terry Miles supplies the detail:

“Mahindra are on track with their investment in GippsAero; and that investment is enabling us to kick-start some of the growth programs. In particular the development of next generation eight-seat aircraft, the GA-8 – 350HP, and development of a new GA-10, the 10-seat Turbo-prop aircraft, as well as the return of the Nomad to production as the GA-18 Twin Turbo-prop aircraft.

“Production volume is up versus 2009 and plans include sales around 18 aircraft this year (FY11). GippsAero sold 14 last year and we’re planning for further growth in Fy12.

“The Mahindra plan is to globalise. And, the investment in GippsAero is creating opportunity to maximise synergies within the group. We’ve started utilising GippsAero’s sister company Aerostaff Australia for manufacture of sheet metal components and sub-assemblies and Mahindra engineers out of Bangalore to do some engineering ’finite element analysis’ work. In addition GippsAero has attracted new engineering recruits from within Victoria and other Australian states

“A complete review of our supply chain has commenced, looking at selection and scope of the supply chain and making sure that we’re ready for that next size of aircraft, the GA-10 and then the GA-18. We see plenty of opportunities for other companies in Victoria, Australia and overseas to get involved in these two new aircraft. So we’re growing jobs in Australia; utilizing the strengths of the Mahindra group which is part of Mahindra’s mantra, to be a true global company.

“In regard to global distribution we’re in the process of recruiting in the US to set up a distribution network for North America and we’ll be doing the same thing in Europe next year. So the investment is both inside the business that’s going to make it a much more healthy core and focused on efforts to increase export sales.”

 

Hofmann Metaltec

Leading precision engineering company Hofmann Engineering has established two businesses in Victoria.

Hofmann Metaltec in Cheltenham is focussed on high precision manufacturing for aerospace, energy, defence and food-packaging markets.

Hofmann Bendigo is a heavy engineering business with a focus on mining and power generation but also undertaking defence work. Bendigo also specialises in industrial gearbox manufacturing and re-builds.

Hofmann is keen to grow its aerospace business and the acquisition of Metaltec in August 2009 was a key move in that direction, as Metaltec has been involved in the design and manufacturing of aerospace tooling and production systems since the mid 1980s. Its customers include Boeing, BAE Systems and Rolls-Royce.

“As part of the strategy to grow the business, Hofmann has been investing heavily in state of the art manufacturing and inspection equipment," says spokesman Denver Alvis.

“These include a new DMG five-axis machining centre, which is capable of machining titanium. It can also handle items like compressor blisks for jet engines, together with spiral bevel gears up to two metre diameter. This has been installed in the last couple of months and is fully operational.

“We are also installing a five-axis high precision machining centre which will be fully up and running by February; and that’s a high speed 8m x 4m machining centre. We’ve also just installed another large CMM machine, and have a number of other exciting projects being rolled out.”

“So things are really progressing well. We’ve have been securing a number of multi-million dollar contracts, both national and international, which cover civilian, military and jet engine systems. So really it’s very much, all systems go. Things are very positive and the directors of Hofmann are quite pleased with the progress.”

 

CRC for Advanced Composite Structures

Australia’s leading R&D organisation for the use of composite materials including carbon fibre. CRC-ACS has a strong program of aerospace research.

It received an assurance of Commonwealth support for another five year extension program which started on the 1st of July 2010.

“It’s a new $65 million program over five years," says CEO Murray Scott. “As part of our new look we formed a new subsidiary called Advanced Composite Structures Australia Pty Ltd or ACS Australia for short, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of the CRC-ACS company. So we’ve had a very significant restructuring; which amounts to a complete renewal effectively and it is very different in that the staff, including myself are all employed by ACS Australia now and our major activity is supporting the new CRC-ACS program.

“One of the challenges over the next five years is for us to emerge via ACS Australia from the CRC-ACS, delivering the same sorts of services locally and internationally but on a new commercial basis.

We essentially have three pillars. There is the traditional aerospace manufacturing pillar, working with many companies, but Airbus in particular is very prominent in our new program. Then we have defence which is our support of DSTO and its partners and clients. And then we have oil & gas where PETRONAS of Malaysia is the major investor and therefore a new partner as well as an important client.”

“Also new is the Chairman of ACS Australia – Tony Carolyn, who of course is very well known in the industry since his retirement from Boeing Aerostructures Australia.”

“And we continue to operate from offices in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane. Melbourne is pretty much business as usual – that’s where our head office is. In Sydney, we’re still operating out of Bankstown but there’s significant change afoot there. And we’re still operating out of what’s now called Australian Aerospace Composites in Eagle Farm in Brisbane.”

“In 2011 I think we have some very challenging research and development tasks that will absolutely bed down this year after the first six months of our establishment phase, with very high expectations on ourselves and from our participants to deliver. A key objective is to mature existing technologies that we have developed in the past, to get them to a technology readiness level that is acceptable for the industry participants such as Airbus and Cassidian Air Systems.”

 

Victorian Centre for Advanced Materials Manufacturing (VCAMM)

The Federal and Victorian Governments have provided financial support for a carbon fibre R&D plant to be established at Deakin University in Victoria.

“We’re about promoting economic activity and business activity in the field of advanced materials and advanced manufacturing,” says VCAMM’s Brad Dunstan. “And making sure that our businesses are globally competitive by developing intellectual property.

“We work with everything from bio-technology to ballistic protection to aerospace alloys to carbon fibre, across the whole gamut of activity.

“We’re working with a large international company to develop a new method of working aluminium so that it will help reduce costs and improve productivity in the aviation industry. So that’s intellectual property that’s being developed here at Monash University and we’re now working with international aerospace and automotive companies to get that into the market.

“But what I’m really passionate about is carbon fibre, everything from securing the supply chain, everything from fibre manufacture through to making composite components like Boeing are making here. So we started off on a journey to try and encourage carbon fibre manufacturers to come to Australia.

“We quickly realised that one of the things that would encourage them to come here would be research and development, having a centre of excellence that was nowhere else in the world, that was putting out graduates who were skilled in carbon manufacture and to have facilities that weren’t available elsewhere.

“We managed to secure funding, $10 million from the Victorian Government combined with some $37 million from the Federal Government, to set up an Australian Future Fibres Innovation Centre down at Geelong, and the centre pillar of that is a 20 tonne per annum research and development carbon fibre furnace, which will enable us to do real world activities down there, do real fibres. We’ll be able to do the single fibres in the research lab as well but we’ll be able to then move from that into a production environment to prove that the fibres can be made reliably, repeatedly in a production environment and we will be the first facility in the world able to do that.”

 

SYPAQ

SYPAQ and Goodrich ISR Systems signed a teaming arrangement at Farnborough Airshow 2010 to explore opportunities in ISR Programs for Defence in Australia.

“We’re primarily consultants, integrators and support service providers in the defence and aerospace sector,” says SYPAQ managing director George Vicino. “We’re a private Australian-owned company headquartered in Melbourne but with offices around Australia.

“Primarily our work is in the defence sector at the moment, although we are starting to work with a few of the fire and emergency services and law enforcement areas because of our partnership with Goodrich ISR Systems from the UK. That involves a range of airborne sensors and gimbals, both in the visual spectrum – electro-optical as well infrared and short-wave infrared – and also related to that is the ground station which then ingests processes and exploits images and video that comes from those sensors. The software stores and processes and geo-references all that stuff as well.

“We’re currently discussing a trial with Queensland Fire for instance before their fire season with some of those sensors and software. And down here in Victoria the DSE and Police Air Wing are showing some interest in those sensors and image processing systems.

“Our ambitions are to seek to grow an integration capability in terms of design and installation, particularly for the range of Goodrich systems and equipment for installation into various forms of air platform, including UAVs. So the other thing that we’re working with Goodrich on is a very clever VTOL UAV which is called the Embla, which was developed by AESIR in the UK and potentially has a huge market here, both in defence and law enforcement and emergency services, in terms of being able to have a quick look over the horizon.

“So we’re beginning to open up our products and services in that space as well.”

 

Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AusAMRC)

The AusAMRC has been established at Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne.

“We’re part of a global network of about 12 centres that Boeing’s engaged with around the world,” says Dean of Engineering John Beynon.. “The international dimension for us is very important and creating a research centre that is doing internationally leading work and therefore any company that associates with us isn’t just associating in terms of Boeing locally but also Boeing globally, and indeed other companies as well.

“Neither Federal nor State Government currently pays us anything, because the way we’re structured is the base funding comes from membership.

“On the other hand what we’re trying to do is to establish some projects that we can then go to government, either State or Federal, and say to them Okay, we’ve got this specific project proposal that we think is beneficial to the industry.’ The first off the rank will be to approach the Australian Research Council for support through their Linkage scheme of research grants jointly supported with industry. “Meanwhile, the State Government is being very helpful; they provide us with a lot of facilities and support for our industry networking.

“One of the projects we’ve got going is a process called incremental sheet forming, which is a way of forming profiles on sheet that doesn’t require tooling, the dyes, to create that shape. And this has particular advantages for repair and maintenance and low volume production, so that’s one area that’s very important.

“We’re also interested in a novel means of magnesium casting. And we’re also interested in the forming and machining of titanium alloys, which are increasingly used in the aerospace business.

“Those would our headline projects at the moment.”

 

Electromold

Electromold is Australia’s leading provider of specialist surface treatments for aerospace and defence components and is playing a leading role in helping Australian companies win Joint Strike Fighter and other defence related contracts.

“We saw an opportunity to get into the aerospace and defence market because there was no one else really providing the service, or if they were they weren’t they didn’t hold the required accreditations to legitimately do so," says CEO Stephen Harvey.

“The driver was the JSF program, with Lockheed Martin being very clear with the Federal Government that they wanted a total in-country solution where parts would be manufactured, coated and finished ready for assembly for their intended purpose. Our ability to step up and provide the in-country surface treatment solution now means Australia can provide a one stop shop for the major primes such as Lockheed.”

“To get to this point, our investment has been in equipment and salaries and wages. On the equipment front, Australia does not provide a ready market for off the shelf purchases of specialised Aerospace and Defence processing equipment. We have to go and either buy equipment overseas or get inventive and build our own infrastructure due to excessive cost for off the shelf locally or our in ability to source locally. The biggest investment has been in salaries because of the new level you are shifting the business to and the people required to manage the rigorous quality System.”

“The feedback we’re getting from our customer base is that we’re certainly doing the right thing. We have had to be quick learners and expand our knowledge through sources all over the world. The end result is our ability to deliver world class product to our customer base, which in turn is of great benefit to our existing and emerging customer base in Australia. A number of Australian Companies have been waiting on a processing solution in country so that they can meet the needs of their primes and be in a position quote on up and coming projects, be it across JSF or other work that require was a total solution in-country.”

 

Rosebank Engineering

Rosebank is a leading component manufacturer and maintenance, repair and overhaul facility servicing commercial and military aerospace sectors.

“We have a successful track record in military aviation, and we’d like to also consider entry to the civil market as an entry,” says David Wallace, Rosebank’s business development man. “We’re certainly an export ready company, stated Craig Butler Rosebank’s General Manager.

“Our core capabilities cover landing gear, flight controls, hydraulics and mechanical systems at the component level. And that means manufacturing and/or maintenance, repair and overhaul. Our core expertise could be directed towards a regional hub or regional support of MRO activities for tier one, tier two suppliers as well as obviously the OEM.

“We have a MRO contract with the Royal Malaysian Air Force. We have a number of new contracts with Defence as well as tier one suppliers like BAE Systems, and we’ve got a very good foundation of contracts that are fixed and firm for the next four or five years" stated Gordon Kennett, AM Managing Director.

“Defence is predominantly our focus but we are obviously looking at diversification and that’s why I’ve included the message that we will extend the civil side.

“We’re enthusiastic, we’re ready, we’re structured in a way to be able to cooperate with folks." says David Wallace.