ASTA Fights Back

And the new team is performing well as is evidenced by the number of new international programmes that ASTA is nowadays becoming involved in. In recent months there have been several important new milestones affecting the future direction of Australia’s second largest aerospace industrial concern. New projects include:

ASTA Aircraft Services- This new organisation will be based at ASTA’s vast Avalon facility and will be charged with heavy maintenance and overhaul responsibility on wide body civil transports. A new 747 sized hangar is under construction and AAS is due to receive its first client, a Continental 747, this October for an extensive D service. AAS have signed a contract valued at $10. 5m with Continental that will cover the heavy maintenance of 8 747s over a period of three years witb a two year option of renewal.

AAS is also actively negotiating with a number of other carriers and will additionally be using Qantas for the relevant high tech engine and avionics work that AAS will not be set up to handle. Likely prospects would naturally be among airlines that trade primarily in the stronger currencies and are experiencing congestion at their primary tech bases such as at Heathrow, New York and Frankfurt.

Based at Avalon, the new organisation will employ around 150 people though only fifteen or so will be LAME’s as much of the workload in a typical C or D service is of a non technical nature. This aspect will also enable AAS to positively tap into the area’s available workforce.

Airbus lndustrie – ASTA recently ·signed for three separate work packages as a sub contractor to France’s Aerospatiale on the Al A330/340 programme. Potential export value of the contract is in the region of $150m and the contracts cover the supply of components on the first 600 aircraft. The three contracts include the centre wing floor support structure, the main gear doors on both the A330 and A340 and the centreline undercarriage doors for the A340. This contract will make good use of ASTA’s excellent composite, bonding and multi-axis machining facilities which are generally considered to be among the best in the world. ASTA also produce fixed shrouds for the hot selling A320 twinjet, which is due to enter service later this year in Australia with Ansett Airlines.

New Light Helo – ASTA, Aerospatiale and the China National Aero-Technology Import & Export Corporation (CATIC) signed an agreement in February this year to design, develop and build a new light helicopter in the 1. 8/2. 5 tonne class. The aircraft would principally be a replacement for the Alouette series in addition to being an adjunct to the Squirrel and Dauphin in their respective market sectors. Aerospatiale’s logic is faultless in that it presently has a rotary wing customer base extending through some 109 countries, to let that base go to a competitor is something that the new consortium is not about to let happen. Design analysis is continuing and it is expected that a firm specification should be agreed on by the end of this year for a projected entry to service around 1995. ASTA is a full risk sharing partner in this programme.

So much for new projects. ASTA’s primary current workload principally revolves around the McDonnell Douglas F-18 and Pilatus PC-9 programmes for the RAAF. ASTA build a number of Hornet components, both for local and export use, including the entire trailing edge flap, the trailing edge flap shroud, the radome assembly, windshield and canopy assemblies and fitting out the forward fuselage structure. Final assembly and test is undertaken at Avalon.

On the Pilatus/HdH PC-9, ASTA is responsible for some 40% of the total work package which includes fabrication and assembly of the fuselage, control surfaces and auxiliary systems.

Civil contracts include the supply of Boeing 747 Krueger flaps through till the year 2000 and Boeing 757 inspar ribs. With both 747 and· 757 production increasing, these programmes will become more important as the months progress. Other contracts include spar and door work on the McDonnell Douglas MD-80 series and the composite rotor blades on the new Sikorsky/HdH S-70 series helicopters.

Other long lived ex-GAF projects that are rapidly gaining a new lease of life are the Jindivik RPV and Lkara ASW system. First flown in 1952, some 500Jindiviks have been delivered to the UK, USA, Sweden and the RAN. Presently under development is the Jindivik Mk. 4B which will be able to operate, with a variety of interchangeable wing planforms, from 50ft to 65,000ft, at up to 550kts and with an impressive 3. 5hr endurance. The Royal Navy is presently very interested in boosting its Jindivik fleet with this’ latest variant as is the RAN.

Meanwhile, the lkara ship launched ASW system is in the throes of yet another update. Latest variant will do away with the cumbersome and space-intensive launcher assembly in favour of a more compact, cheaper and less maintenance and space intensive box launch system. Ongoing electronic and,systems updates have kept the lkara system up to the prevailing threat and the system is used by the RAN, RN and Brazil. A total of over 1,200 missiles have been sold since the early sixties

Meanwhile, the highly classified Project Winnin, now officially designated as Nulka, is also up and running with full US Dept of Defence backing. It is expected that Nulka will become operational on both Australian and USN ships from 1992 onwards. Nulka features a box launched hovering rocket system that literally seduces away inbound hostile anti-ship missiles, itself electronically mimicking the original target and thereby aiding the ship’s own Close In Weapon Systems of rocket launched chaff, ECM and shipboard CIWS guns and missiles.

Indeed, the new ASTA is a far cry from what survived for years under the banner of the Government Aircraft Factories. For Australia, ASTA represents a new and viable opportunity to join with foreign aerospace manufacturers in collaborative programmes that will produce export revenue, regional technological independence and a stronger indigenous aerospace capability.