A new horizon: preparing MRO operators for eVTOLS

In July, Tamworth-based MRO provider Sigma Aerospace joined Greenbird, becoming the first maintenance operator to do so. Sigma’s director Matthew Wheatley told Australian Aviation that, with so much still unknown about how an AAM ecosystem will operate in Australia, making it ever-more difficult for MRO operators to prepare. “The biggest challenge for us, and for people like us, is the current lack of understanding around regulation and policy when it comes to eVTOL and AAM operations,” Wheatley says. “So that’s where Greenbird comes in.”

Greenbird was founded only earlier this year, born off the back of two aviation consultancies that recognised the pressing need for a collaborative approach to the introduction of what can only be described as the next generation of aviation. Since February, AVISTRA managing director Sara Hales and Aviation Projects director Keith Tonkin have joined forces under Greenbird and welcomed over a dozen ecosystem partners from across the sector. Partners include Griffith University, Archerfield Airport, Nautilus Aviation, H2 Energy, Electro.Aero, and of course, Sigma.

The major purpose of the Greenbird platform is to encourage greater industry collaboration to fully prepare Australia for the full implementation of a mature, commercialised ecosystem of autonomous or semi-autonomous electric or hydrogen-powered short-haul passenger transport aircraft within its cities. In order to achieve this, Greenbird will not only work to deeply understand, define and support the development of these vehicles along with its required infrastructure, its regulation, its social acceptance by the communities it will service, as well as drum up investment in Australia’s local AAM sector.

“By working with Greenbird, we really want to establish ourselves as a leader in the MRO space when it comes to eVTOL and AAM operations,” Wheatley says. “And by a leader, I mean an organisation that really understands the requirements of operators in this space moving forward. So we want to not only be among the first companies investing in the eVTOL and AAM MRO space but also working with Greenbird to determine and define the requirements to support the sector from the get-go.”

However, regulation is largely just the first of many hurdles for aviation support businesses like Sigma when attempting to adapt to these particular emerging aviation technologies. “This new addition to the aviation market is going to be the most drastic change we’ve seen to our operations in decades,” Wheatley says. “Advancement in this space is drastically picking up pace, particularly under the new Labor government and its aim to aggressively reduce carbon emissions.” Plus, given the scale that most AAM concepts are attempting to achieve, once these vehicles hit the market, it’s highly likely that the country could see hundreds, if not thousands, of these vehicles rolled out within a relatively short timeframe. “So it’s incredibly important for us to be prepared for that,” Wheatley says. 

Many visions for Australia’s AAM market include electric battery-powered rotorcraft. These vehicles will likely see their lithium-ion batteries powered by renewable energies such as solar or wind, making them far more sustainable than traditional petrol-powered cars and taxis travelling over the same distance – and drastically greener than combustion engine aircraft or rotorcraft. These aircraft will also likely transport up to eight passengers at a time from hub to hub, such as the airport to the CBD, or CBD to suburbs, also cutting down the need for individual cars and taxis on the road. Greenbird managing director Sara Hales previously told Australian Aviation that piloted AAM air taxis could cost the customer as much as an Uber Black travelling the same distance, while automated vehicles would bring the cost down to being on par with today’s regular Uber fares.

“These fares are achieved through the scalability of the system,” Hales says. Batteries are far easier to replace and maintain than traditional jet fuel engines, and the light, composite-built rotorcraft are expected to, overall, require far less maintenance than traditional aircraft, saving huge costs for operators. However, according to Wheatley, the matter of scalability will mean that MRO providers will still certainly have their work cut out for them. “There’s a lot of discussion in this space that says AAM vehicles will require less maintenance, which I’m sure is true, but there are some points to highlight in terms of MRO,” Wheatley explains. He says that eVTOL operators will likely still benefit from cheaper maintenance costs, especially compared to traditional aircraft making the same number of trips. “But that extremely high frequency of operations is going to change how we look at these vehicles.

“Firstly, there is going to be a lot of regulation about how these air taxis operate, given the fact that they are regularly carrying passengers through the air, and especially if we begin to see autonomous eVTOL operations. So we can expect that maintenance schedules will be fairly rigorous, and given how many vehicles will be in the system at one time, it should keep MROs fairly busy.” He continues: “Secondly, while we may not know exactly what models will be used most often across Australia, we know that the majority of the eVTOLs coming to the market in the next decade have between eight and 12 propellors on them, some of which change direction from the vertical to horizontal axis. So we know that those propellors are going to require a lot of inspections, particularly given how often these aircraft will be utilised, to ensure there is no structural damage.” 

Wheatley says, again, while we may not know the details of how these airframes will be constructed, we do know they’re going to be “very, very lightweight structures” that perform a high frequency of takeoff and landings, which will impact the rate of wear on various parts of the airframe. “With that fact alone, they’ll require regular inspections and maintenance to ensure that the airframe is performing as it should,” he says. “Some vehicles that I’ve seen to date will have retractable landing gear, like traditional aircraft, so anything with a moving pivot point or joint will need regular inspections too.” 

Another key aspect is that these airframes will be “packed with significant amounts of battery technology”, according to Wheatley. “So how do those batteries get charged and checked?” he asked. “And how often do they need to be swapped out entirely? Will it be every year, or maybe every few years? We also need to understand how integrated the battery is into the airframe, to determine how significant a job it would require in order to change the battery, so if it’s just a simple process or a major structural repair job.” Wheatley adds: “The last thing to consider is avionics. We know these vehicles will be very high-tech and use the latest cutting-edge technology, so it’s important that our skillsets and knowledge keep up with the market in that way too.”

Wheatley notes another factor in adequately preparing businesses for the introduction of air taxi ecosystems: talent. “As a Part 147 approved maintenance training organisation, we can train our engineers in-house, so now we’re exploring how we can help build and roll out new training initiatives for these new types of aerial vehicles.” Sigma’s Part 147 capability will allow it to keep ahead of the curb in training and retaining qualified staff amid a sector-wide talent shortage, which is only expected to increase in magnitude as the air taxi market begins to scale. “It means we’ll be perfectly positioned to support the next generation of aviation as it evolves. So be that new avionics, aircraft structures, non-destructive testing, battery handling, and so on. Everything that might shift during the introduction of AAM vehicles, we’re prepared to have full knowledge of it and be able to apply that knowledge.”

When it comes to qualifications, Wheatley sees the maintenance of AAM and eVTOL aircraft as “specialised” and, therefore, likely to be differentiated by CASA. “It will likely be a separate license in some form, but also an extension of the current aircraft maintenance engineers license,” he says. “Being able to train engineers to be qualified under that license would also be something we would look into.” Further to that, Wheatley believes engineers and MRO operators are going to need to be well-versed in both traditional and new-age aviation technologies, particularly in Australia, where he predicts a growing trend toward the retrofitting of existing aircraft with new, more sustainable engines and capabilities. “I believe there’s almost certainly going to be a transitionary period where electric engines, possibly even hydrogen-electric technology, and battery technology can be repurposed into the general aviation market, particularly for Australia’s regional passenger transport sector. So that could look like upgrading current turbine or piston engines on regional jets into either electric or hydrogen-electric propulsion. An earlier stepping stone to that could even be turning current fuel aircraft into diesel fuel-powered, and then later electric or so on. That’s a huge opportunity for businesses like ours to facilitate that, and we’re definitely looking into the possibility of setting up our own conversion centre to help start out that process.”

The last major area for MRO businesses that will be most impacted by AAM vehicles is the supply chain. “One of the most exciting things about AAM is that there is now space for brand new OEMs and parts suppliers to make a name for themselves in aviation,” Wheatley says. “There will, of course, be some of the big players today that take hold in AAM, like Embraer’s EVE or Quickstep, for example. But largely, I think we’re mostly going to be dealing with brand new suppliers when it comes to maintenance on these vehicles.” Wheatley sees this fact as a mere opportunity to partner up with new businesses throughout the region and globe, as opposed to a challenge to overcome. “It’s all about developing new relationships, but that’s nothing new to us. And if anything, I think it’s going to be great to see the dynamic of the marketplace change as new, smaller enterprises come in and open up the opportunity for us to diversify and support other products and suppliers.”

Though, the Sigma director tossed in a word of caution to the new OEMs and suppliers rapidly expanding ahead of a planned launch of AAM operations before the end of this decade. “There almost appears to be a mismatch between the volume of aircraft that everyone is expecting to operate these ecosystems with, and what today’s supply chain is capable of rolling out. I worry that we simply can’t manufacture these aircraft to the scale at which we are expecting to.” Wheatley continued: “Incumbent OEMs, like Cessna and Piper, have a wait list of around two years for the delivery of new aircraft, simply due to supply chain constraints. So while I’m sure there will be some synergies with the use of advanced composites and the addition of brand new supply chains, I worry that the reality of today’s operating environment means that we may not see fully-functional AAM ecosystems, complete with appropriate regulation and oversight, navigation and landing infrastructure, pilots and operators, and physical vehicles at the desired scale, by the end of this decade. 

“So I see the next few years in aviation as being really critical, as we try to answer two separate issues – they’re closely linked, but they are separate – and that’s sustainable aviation and advanced aerial mobility. For Australia, sustainability is going to be a far bigger issue to address because we rely so heavily on transporting passengers across long distances, while dense cities like New York or LA are going to more-so benefit in the near term from AAM to solve increasing traffic congestion issues.” He concluded: That is again why I think shorter-term conversion and retrofitting of traditional aircraft is going to take hold in Australia, to give us green solutions in other arenas of aviation before the introduction of our own local air taxi market.”