Hawker de Havilland Expands Manufacturing

The Company commenced its association with Boeing in 1970, and its current contracts are in force until 1986, with follow-on potential being available. Hawker de Havilland are also heavily involved in design and development with organisations such as the Boeing Company.

The Boeing Commercial Airplane Company of Seattle has recently placed an order with Hawker de Havilland for the manufacture of new advanced composite ailerons for future Boeing 737-300 aeroplanes. This contract is valued at five million dollars plus, and deliveries will start in late 1983, continuing until 1985.

The ailerons are graphite-epoxy, a new material that reduces structural weight and increases payload. Hawker de Havilland engineers and production representatives are working at Boeing on the development of production techniques for the new ailerons.

The Hawker de Havilland-Boeing Commercial Airplane Company agreement for the new ailerons is seen as particularly significant, as the Boeing 737 has been a consistently big seller. Total sales for the Boeing 737 is now over 1000 aeroplanes.

The new ailerons will be fitted to the stretched and re-engined Boeing 737-300, which will enter service late in 1984. They’ll also be fitted to the 737-200 version, as operated by Ansett Airlines.

In order to honour this commitment, Hawker de Havilland invested in an expenditure of almost two million dollars for new autoclave facilities required to bond the ailerons. This new equipment will prove to be useful for other Hawker de Havilland customers, including the Australian Defence Forces. Hawker de Havilland now produces components for Boeing 707, 727, 737, 747 and 757 airliners.

The Minister for Defence Support, Mr Ian Viner, has stated that he has approved the Hawker de Havilland-Boeing contract as an offset, as part of a commitment agreed to by Boeing with the Australian Government, in connection with the sale of Boeing 727, 737 and 767 aircraft to Ansett and TAA. Additionally, Boeing has other offset commitments relating to Qantas 747 aircraft. Boeing is now the largest civil aviation contractor under the Government’s offset policy, due to its placing of offset orders with a total value of one hundred and twenty million dollars.

Hawker de Havilland is associated also with Boeing in connection with the Boeing Vertol CH-47 Chinook helicopter.

Hawker de Havilland is participating ‘in discussions with Boeing on possible future involvement with the proposed Boeing 7-7 airliner.

Some of the major contracts placed by Boeing with Hawker de Havilland which may be of interest begin in 1970, with a two-year order for Boeing 747 escape-chute packboards, which was the first civil-offset project undertaken and involved 150 aircraft. Between 1970 and 1971, various miscellaneous spares for the Boeing 707 were produced, while in 1970 to 1976, skills originally used to manufacture the Macchi trainer landing gear components were used to produce the aft landing gear for approximately 100 Chinook CH-47 helicopters. 1970 to 1980 saw 250 Chinook CH-47 dynamic absorbers and machine component parts produced at Hawker de Havilland. 1971 to 1984, a total of 953 chipsets of Boeing 737 wing-inspire ribs were produced, using automatic rivetting processes to manufacture them.

Also between 1971 and 1984, a total of 942 rudders for Boeing 727s will have been manufactured, using metal-bonded skins. Between 1974 and 1975, orders for passenger seating for the Boeing 727 and 737 were filled. In 1979, an order for Boeing 757 wing-inspar ribs, using large-scale three-axis and five-axis numerically controlled milling processes was commenced, with Hawker de Havilland and the Government Aircraft Factory engineers working on the design of the ribs at the Boeing Company.

The new order for the Boeing 737 ailerons completes the history of contracting, to date, between Hawker de Havilland and Boeing. Spin-off features of Hawker de Havilland’s association as a Boeing sub-contractor have been opportunities to acquire and use new manufacturing technologies, many of which have been successfully used on other civil and military projects. Some of these processes include honeycomb and pre-impregnated fibreglass manufacture, machining and heat treatment of high-strength steels, numerically controlled drilling, and numerically controlled machining centres. The five-axis numerically controlled machining for the Boeing 757 wing rib is of particular interest. Hawker de Havilland and its sub-contractor, Government Aircraft Factory, have both installed Cincinnati Milacron five-axis, three-spindle mills, identical to the most modern available in the USA or Europe.

This technology is identical to that used on major Australian defence projects, such as the F-18A Hornet.

Three-axis numerically controlled machining also for the Boeing 757 is large bed size three-spindle, three-axis, numerically controlled equipment. G. A. F. has also acquired similar machines as a sub-contractor.

Hawker de Havilland’s automatic riveting equipment, used to make Boeing 727 wing-inspire ribs involves a total of five Gemcer machines, bought over the last ten years. They’ve also been used for other projects, including the Nomad, and in the future will be used to make wing components for the prototypes of the new Australian Basic Trainer.

Manufacturing accounts for 41 per cent of all work undertaken now by Hawker de Havilland Australia, with servicing and maintenance work representing 59 per cent. The percentage of the total product that is exported is 49 per cent.

Hawker de Havilland deals with Argentina, Austria, Brazil, Brunei, Burma, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Fiji, Guam, Hong Kong, Korea, Indonesia, Iran, Italy, Japan, Laos, Malaysia, Nauru, Netherlands, New Caledonia, New Zealand, Nigeria, Northern Ireland, Oman, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Samoa, Singapore, the Solomons, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Surinam, Sweden, Tahiti, Thailand, United Arab Emirates, the U. K. , U. S. A. West Samoa and West Germany. Pretty impressive geography!

Since 1968, Hawker de Havilland’s international manufacturing contracts have included work for Bell, International Harvester, Hawker-Siddeley, Boeing, Sikorsky Helicopter McDonnell Douglas, Detroit Deisel, Lockheed, Sanders Associates, British Aerospace, Pratt & Whitney and General Electric.

A few of the more notable of these contracts are Lockheed L1011 airframe sub-assemblies, McDonnell Douglas DC-10 pressurisation ducts, McDonnell Douglas DC-9 elevators, elevators for the McDonnell Douglas DC-9 Super 80, Pratt & Whitney JT8D components and Sikorsky CH-53 clutch kits.

Hawker de Havilland was awarded a Lockheed contract to supply L1011 flight engineers’ consoles, following the RAAF purchase of the P3C Orion. They also produced assemblies for the L1011 air-conditioning system. During the honouring of the contract, Hawker de Havilland was able to develop expertise in the field of high-temperature forming of titanium. The contract was originally awarded in 1975, one year after McDonnell Douglas contracted with the Company for the manufacture of sheet-metal pressurisation ducts for the DC-10. The manufacture and supply of these ducts is still in progress.

In 1976, after successfully out-distancing international companies, Hawker de Havilland was awarded a prestige contract to make elevators for the stretched DC-9 Super 80. This involvement saw Hawker engineers working at Douglas on substantial design modifications for the extended elevator. Hawker de Havilland’s prototype elevator delivery was made a month ahead of schedule. The contract is due to end this year.

But while the contract for the DC-9 extended elevator may be drawing to a close, the Hawker de Havilland role in subcontracting to the Aerospace Industry has really only just begun. The Company has shown the world aviation community that it is a truly significant force in aerospace manufacturing, building up an impeccable reputation for know-how, competitiveness and reliability relating to time schedules.

Who knows what’s in store in the future for this highly professional manufacturer?