An ice protection system developed for low flying bombers in World War II has been turned into a multi million pound export engineering business by a leading north east aerospace company.
Small jet aircraft, helicopters and even unmanned surveillance aircraft are now flying ice free thanks to County Durham based, CAV Aerospace.
The company has also recently diversified in to niche long bed machining for larger aircraft such as the Airbus A380 and the Boeing 777.
Set up in 1990 by partners Owen McFarlane, Bryan Humphries and Jeff Cross to manufacture leading edges for wings and de-icing systems for business jets, CAV Aerospace now employs 450 people and has a projected annual turnover for 2006 of £39million.
With headquarters in Consett, County Durham, and offices in Manchester, Leicester, Wales, the USA and Poland, the business traces its origins to a fluid based antifreeze developed for RAF aircraft on low level bombing missions.
CEO, Owen McFarlane, manages the business from its base in the North East. He explained:
“Below 25000 feet, moisture levels in the air can cause dangerous ice build up on the leading edge of an aircraft’s wings.
“Early ice protection systems used a rubber ‘boot’ on the wing would inflate to crack the ice, but during the war barrage balloon ropes sliced into the rubber rather than slide along the wing to a cutting rig. So it was important to retain a hard leading edge.”
A fluid based ice protection system was created by Techalmet Killfrost Sheepbridge Sintered Stokes, branded TKS, that could be applied to the leading edge to keep it clear of ice and which is still produced by Northumberland company, Killfrost.
A former employee of Killfrost, Owen decided to branch off and set to work on a contract for British Aerospace to manufacturer leading edges for the Hawker 800xp business jet with an integrated TKS system. CAV still retains their business16 years later:
“Smaller aircraft don’t have the capability to fly at the higher altitudes above the ice hazard and with the growth in private jet ownership and hire I saw a gap in the market.”
The company’s patented system applies antifreeze fluid through a series of membranes and minutely drilled holes in the surface of the wing:
“Our machines can laser drill up to 800 holes per square inch, through which the fluid seeps. The pilot can activate the system to clear ice or to prevent it from forming.”
Today, around sixty percent of the company’s business comes from engineering parts for larger commercial aircraft built by Boeing and Airbus
CAV’s long bed machining technology is a niche area that has allowed it to win work producing 22 meter wing spars for the Airbus A380 and vertical tail section spars for the Boeing 777.
On the A380, spars run the length of the wing and need to be able to withstand a great deal of stress as the wing tips flex up to three meters in flight:
“We have positioned ourselves to maximise the technology through ice protection, but have been responsive to opportunities created by a requirement for larger machined components.”
It’s a flexible approach which has seen the company enter a rapid period of growth:
“When you start off in any new business you obviously have a pretty clear vision of where you would like to go, but the reality is it never goes where you want. All you have to do is stay sharp and remember that your business is based on what your customers want. If you do that your business will continue to grow.
“However, what you produce today will not be what they want tomorrow so you have to think innovatively and position yourself to address the needs of the future before they arrive.”
With this approach in mind, Owen is convinced that the business is well positioned to exploit what he believes will be an inevitable boom in personal air transport:
“Why should people continue to put up with being held up in traffic for ever and a day when we have the ability to move in three dimensions?
“In the next 25 years, affordable personal aircraft will become a reality and the question for us as a business is whether we will be ready to compete with organisations in the automotive industry as the technology converges.”
For many of us it seems a radical vision, but with the unstoppable growth in short haul aviation industry and the increasing investment in private jet hire it’s something CAV is planning for well in advance:
“In the UK everything tends to be about making short term decisions and the planning horizon is never more than three to five years. However, we started working on A380 in 1997 and ten years on Airbus is just about to deliver the first aircraft to market. As a business we have learnt to take a much longer term view of the growth of the business and will continue to do so.”