Hawker de Havilland Forges Ahead

In a recent much-needed rationalisation of its various Sydney-based establishments, the Marine Division was moved to Homebush Bay, where it’s considerably easier to launch boats than at the old location near Bankstown Airport. Company facilities at Lidcombe, in the old C. A. C. premises, were then moved to the increased space at the Bankstown Airport location; space available due to the re-location of the Marine division.

At Lidcombe, a new Dynamometer test-cell for Garrett TPE-331 engines was created, by re-furbishing one of the buildings at the plant. The test cell for the Garrett TPE-331 is virtually the only Hawker de Havilland facility being maintained at Lidcombe. The new test cell comes as a result of agreements between Hawker de Havilland and the Garrett Turbine Engine Company.

Hawker de Havilland has negotiated successfully to provide Australasian support for both TPE-331 and TFE-731 engines. The work undertaken at Bankstown will be on TPE-331 units, with testing at Lidcombe; repair, overhaul and exchange being carried out as part of the normal process. The TFE-731 pure-jet engine will be repaired, maintained and serviced at the Perth, Western Australia, facility.

The agreements between Hawker de Havilland and Garrett were only concluded after the Garrett Company had carried out a detailed inspection of the Hawker de Havilland operation. Garrett wished to satisfy itself that Hawker de Havilland would be able to offer the standard of service demanded by the Garrett Company. As a result of the signing of the agreements, Hawker de Havilland invested two million dollars in new facilities, which include the new Dynamometer test cell at Lidcombe, an adaptation of the Perth jet-cell for TFE-731 engines, the manufacture and procurement of special tooling and test rigs, the purchase of spare parts, and the training of ten specialist Hawker de Havilland staff at the Garrett Engine School, Phoenix, Arizona, U. S. A.

Currently, three Garrett engines are on-line at Hawker de Havilland. The TPE-331 facility was ready for use in May 1982, and the TFE-731 jet facility by June. As stated earlier, Hawker de Havilland have strong ties with the military, an association that has existed, and developed, since the birth of the Company in Australia. Hawker de Havilland presently undertakes work for the Army, Navy and Air Force.

Its commitments to the Army include an overhaul on engines for the Bell 206 Helicopter, the GAF Nomad, and the Pilatus Porter fixed-wing aircraft.

The Bell 206 has Allison-250 engines, as does the fixed-wing Nomad, with the Pilatus Porter being powered by Pratt and Whitney PT-6 engines.

The Navy have both engines and transmissions overhauled by Hawker de Havilland, on Wessex helicopters, with Rolls-Royce Gazelle engines, Sea King helicopters, with Rolls-Royce Gnome engines, and Grumman Tracker fixed-wing aeroplanes, with Wright 1820 piston engines.

For the Air Force, Iroquois and Chinook helicopters with Lycoming T-53 and T-55 engines are overhauled at Hawker de Havilland. The fixed-wing Caribou, with its Pratt and Whitney R-2000 piston-engines, are also looked after by Hawker de Havilland maintenance personnel.

For organisations outside the military sphere, in the rotarywing category, work is done for companies like Esso, Vowell Helicopters, Jayrow Helicopters, Tallair, and others in Papua New Guinea and the Pacific region.

Work on the Allison-250 engine encompasses that for aircraft consisting of the Bell Jetranger and LongRanger, the Hughes 500, the Bolrew, a twin-engined helicopter, the Agusta A-109, the Sikorsky S-76, and the fixed-wing Nomad.

Pratt and Whitney PT-6 engine overhaul relates to DHC Twin Otters, Embraer Bandeirante, the Pilatus Porter, and the Bech T-34C Mentor.

Lycoming engines are overhauled for the Bell 204 and Bell 205 helicopters, while the Garrett TPE-331 is found in Marlins, Metros, Skyvans, MU-2s, Casa 212s and Aero Commanders.

Of all work undertaken by Hawker de Havilland Australia, currently, servicing and maintenance accounts for 59 per cent, while manufacturing represents 41 per cent. Fifty-one per cent of the product is for home use, while 49 per cent is for export. And the bulk of the Company’s business is in aviation, which makes up 90 per cent of its activity. Marine customers represent only three per cent, and general-industrial seven per cent.

A major part of the attractiveness of the Hawker de Havilland servicing and maintenance operation is the advanced processes with which they have undertaken the salvage and repair of precision component parts. These items, often as not, are extremely expensive, and the beauty of Hawker de Havilland’s salvage programme is revealed when the component can frequently be returned to ‘as-new’ condition for one-sixth of the cost of buying a new component part!

Hawker’s Mike Cuming proudly tells me that sometimes, the company can actually make a component structurally stronger than it was when new, by the ‘re-work’ processes in use at Bankstown. One example of ‘re-work’ that I witnessed at the modern Hawker de Havilland facility was component reclamation work being carried out for the RAAF on a Pratt and Whitney TF-30 Turbine Stator. The top-flanged ring was removed, and replaced by electronic beam welding, and the weld only was stress-relieved. It was then partially machined. Later, the component was placed on a gap-bed lathe prior to finishing. After that operation, the ‘flange’ was finally machined on a ‘Ceruti’ universal borer, and the component was then turned out for inspection and released for service. Hawker de Havilland has successfully developed a number of ‘in-house’ schemes to enhance their programme of component reclamation. The Company has much design and development experience for these schemes, and is constantly on the lookout for new ways of assisting customers reclaim expired high-cost components.

Just a few of the processes that are used daily in the ‘reworking’ of components are electron-beam-welding, electro-discharge-machining, flame and plasma spray, plasma needle arc-welding, controlled shot-peening, electro-plating, vacuum brazing and hydrogen-furnace-cleaning. The Company’s expertise in applying these processes for the salvage of high-cost components at a fraction of their value, has attracted many of international contracts for engines, landing gear and power generation equipment.

Hawker de Havilland is also heavily involved in airframe overhaul and is the most diversified contractor to the Australian Defence Forces in relation to overhaul, modification, repair and testing of fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters, airframe components, fibreglass assemblies, and helicopter rotor-blades and hubs.

The actual overhaul process involves a set routine of receiving the components, stripping them down and cleaning them, and inspecting for crack detection. After this, the components are then sent either for re-working or spares-procurement, after which they are sub-assembled, final-assembled, tested and despatched. Quality control is regarded as of foremost importance, and a system of checking and cross-checking of completed work is used to ensure that only components worthy of being returned to the client after overhaul are returned.

The ‘re-work’ section accounts for over 60 per cent of all manhours during overhaul, and on a typical Allison engine overhaul, approximately 35 items are put out for ‘re-work’. As I walk through the section, Mike Cuming informs me that an average of 525 individual jobs are done on that typical engine! Imagine the savings for the customer! Whether civil or military.

Hawker de Havilland also offers life-of-type support to both civil and defence customers who use a wide range of electronics and instrumentation hardware. Some of the equipment in their Avionics workshop as we walk through includes radar, HF, VHF and UHF radio transceivers, auto-pilots, Doppler systems, radio altimeters, digital weapons systems, depth-sounders (for shipping usage) and gyroscopes. The company also overhauls aircraft electrical systems, and uses the very latest technology for testing, including microcomputers with software and interface hardware. Much of this equipment has been in fact designed by de Havilland engineers!

The ‘clean room for precision instruments is actually about ten times as clean as a hospital operating theatre, and it is in this room that very sensitive work is carried out on very delicate instruments that must not be contaminated with even minute amounts of dust. The type of equipment that is serviced in the ‘clean room’ includes components such as inertial-navigation systems (INSS) and OMEGA (GNS) units. The point-to-point accuracy of these units depends critically on servicing being done in a dust-free environment.

At the beginning of the 1970s, Hawker de Havilland’s manufacturing activities were facing a severe workload rundown. The Company had out-of-date technology and their productivity was low by international standards. Since then, new management attitudes have been formulated, and action resulting from these strategies has seen Hawker de Havilland developing manufacturing and maintenance facilities incorporating the most advanced technologies available around the world.

It may be worth stating that even with these new attitudes, and the ongoing programme of the acquisition of up-to-date and international-standard tooling to undertake the fulfilment of contracts, Hawker de Havilland would not have enjoyed the success without having had particularly good relations with its workforce. Management is on a first-name basis with employees, and the Company is heavily into worker involvement with its activities. A suggestion scheme is actively encouraged by management, giving employees all the way down the line the chance to show their worth by making suggestions relating to improving overhaul and other processes. If the Company benefits from any creative ideas passed on by employees, the Persons responsible are paid substantial rewards, on a scale which is directly related to the amount of money they are expected to save Hawker de Havilland.

As you walk through the various Hawker de Havilland facilities and speak to the people who work there, you can feel the good relationship that exists between the company and its workforce.

In our next issue of ‘Australian Aviation’, we will examine the other side of the Hawker de Havilland Australian operation-manufacturing! The Company now has Aerospace- sub-contracting orders totalling one-hundred-and-twenty- five million dollars. Enjoy our next issue, and find out where these multi-million dollar contracts are being won!