POSTED ON October 24, 2023
Innovaero, a leading Australian company in product design, certification, and manufacturing services for the aviation industry, has announced a partnership with the Aerostructures Innovation Research (AIR) Hub at Swinburne University of Technology.
The partnership accesses the AIR Hub’s AIR Pass program, which provides prototyping, technical, financial, and promotional support to research and development projects in the field of advanced air mobility.
Collaboration to leverage joint capabilities
The purpose is to drive collaboration between Innovaero and the AIR Hub, leveraging both organisation’s expertise in developing next generation aerostructures for various platforms, including Defence projects.
Through the development and sharing of ideas, accessing leading-edge technology in manufacturing automation, both in Australia and overseas, the partnership will scale up and automate the manufacturing of Innovaero’s unmanned aerial system (UAS) platforms.
Innovaero has an impressive history of innovation and manufacturing; most recently developing aerial camera systems for Nearmap Ltd and Spookfish Ltd. However, moving into new markets, such as Defence, will require much higher production rates and efficiencies.
Moving from product development to manufacturing
The partnership will investigate and develop feasible solutions for component manufacture and assembly procedures that optimise the production cycle time and cost. Production cycle automation is a key aspect of the project.
Simon Grosser, Innovaero Group CEO, said:
“Working with Swinburne gives the team there a great opportunity to apply their resources to reverse engineering current pre-production technology, and to focus on process engineering to assist with the expected scale-up. We are open to exploring new ideas and materials to achieve the ultimate best outcome, and to ensure we build on the significant export potential we’ve already demonstrated. Innovaero is proudly 100% Australian owned, and we intend to ensure that the commercial benefits remain in Australia.”
Dr Adriano Di Pietro, Director of the AIR Hub, said:
“The AIR Pass program is designed to support small and medium-sized enterprises to meet their ambitions and catalyse development within the Australian aviation industry. The Innovaero AIR Pass partnership will achieve exactly that, drawing on the diverse skills and experience of both the AIR Hub and Innovaero teams.”
Innovaero’s CEO Simon Grosser (L) and Production Engineer Will Sutcliffe with Dr Adriano Di Pietro’s, Director of the AIR Hub (R), at his recent visit to Innovaero facilities
