Australian Flying — November-December 2017

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News

In August Mahindra

Aerospace’s (GippsAero)

Airvan 10 became the

second turboprop aircraft

ever certified in Australia,

when it received its Civil

Aviation Safety Authority

(CASA) type certificate

at a special ceremony at

the subsidiary GippsAero

facility in Victoria’s

Latrobe Valley.

Deputising for CASA

Director of Aviation

Safety Shane Carmody,

Stakeholder Engagement

Manager Rob Walker

passed the certificate to

GippsAero CEO Keith

Douglas, marking the entry

of the 10-seat single-engine

utility aircraft in to service,

and the end of a six-year

development program.

“This is hugely

special,” Douglas said.

“It is only the second

turboprop aircraft

certified in Australia.

So for the people here,

the community [at

GippsAero] this is hugely

significant.”

The only other turbine

certified in Australia

was the twin-engine

Government Aircraft

Factories (GAF) Nomad

in the 1970s, for which

GippsAero also now owns

the type certificate.

During the acceptance

speeches, Douglas,

GippsAero founder and

Director of Development

George Morgan and

Chief Test Pilot David

Wheatland paid tribute

to the hard work and

dedication shown by the

small staff at the Latrobe

Valley factory, and thanked

partners Rolls Royce,

Garmin, Bilyara and others

who contributed to the

Airvan 10 program.

GippsAero’s piston-

engine Airvan 8, first

delivered in 2000,

has become the most

manufactured commercial

aircraft in Australian

history with more than

240 aircraft in service

on six continents. The

Airvan is designed to

be rugged, versatile

and easily maintained,

seating eight people or

configured for missions

such as aeromedical,

law enforcement, aerial

surveillance and air freight.

Certification of the

slightly longer turboprop

Airvan 10 opens up a

wide range of market

opportunities for both

GippsAero and parent

company Mahindra

Aerospace.

“It opens us up into

a much bigger market,

the turboprop market,”

Douglas said. “The piston-

engine market is maybe

50-60 aircraft a year; the

turboprop market is 150

per year. Cessna sells

about 90 Caravans, the

750 XL maybe 30 of them.

“We’re going to enter into

this space, but we’re not

going to compete with

them; we’re actually going

to provide the operators

with another option that’s

not been there in the past.

“We’re very, very excited

about this.”

The Airvan 10 is

powered by a 450-hp

Rolls Royce M250 turbine

engine, has a maximum

take-off weight of 2166

kg and carries 1000 kg of

payload. It was designed to

be as similar to the piston

Airvan 8 as possible, but

carries the added advantage

of burning turbine fuel,

which is often cheaper

and more readily available

than avgas in some world

markets.

For GippsAero, the

challenge now is to move

the Airvan 10 smoothly

from development into

production.

“We will set-up

capability here [Latrobe

Regional Airport] to

produce around 20 aircraft

per year,” Douglas said.

“We’re busy converting

the plant to final assembly,

but we will build capacity

around what the market

tells us, and not what we

think we can build. And

that will take two to three

years before we know the

level of acceptance of the

aircraft.”

Douglas and the

GippsAero team also plan

to introduce the aeroplane

in an unconventional way,

shunning the tradition

method of selecting

a launch customer in

favour of marketing by

demonstration.

“We’ve decided to

adopt a strategy that is

very similar to the Airvan

8, which is to take the

aircraft and demonstrate

it, work with two or three

key partners, who can

then say ‘fine tune this,

tidy that up’, and give us a

lot of feedback.

“We’re pretty clear

where we’ll go: New

Zealand, Australia, the

USA. One of our dealers

in Alaska runs a small

airline with 26 aircraft and

he wants to increase that

to 37, and he wants ten

Airvan 10s.”

GippsAero’s development

team will now focus

on smaller projects for

the Airvan 10 such as

f loats, autopilot and

airconditioning whilst

the company completes a

feasibility study into putting

the twin turboprop Nomad

back into production as the

Airvan 18.

CASA certifies Airvan 10

CASA

Stakeholder

Engagement

Manager Rob

Walker (left)

hands the

Airvan 10 type

certificate to

GippsAero CEO

Keith Douglas.

GippsAero’s

turbine Airvan

becomes second

Australian

certified turboprop

AUSTRALIAN FLYING November – December 2017

The Rolls

Royce M

powered

Airvan 10

has a larger

market than

its piston-

powered

sibling.

STEVE HITCHEN