EMMA KELLY / PERTH & PETER LA FRANCHI / CANBERRA
Draft report lists key opportunities for growth in aerostructures and software
Australia is failing to meet itsaerospace potential due to a lack of "critical mass", insufficient involvement in global platform development and government support, coupled with aÊfragmented industry structure and under-investment in research and development, according to a draft government report obtained exclusively by Flight International.
The joint Australian Department of Industry, Tourism and Resources and Department of Defence report, Partnering in the Global Context, says the greatest opportunities for the country are in aerostructures, software and electronics, through-life support of civil and military aircraft, the design and manufacture of light aircraft and light engines, and unmanned aerial vehicles.
Although the country's aerospace industry has maintained "steady performance" over the past five years, there has been limited growth in gross product - 0.03% of GDP in 2000-1 - while the deficit in trade has widened as aircraft imports rise, it says. Australia's aerospace industry in 2000-1 had a turnover of A$1.8 billion ($1.1 billion), with exports accounting for 39% or A$709 million, while civil and military imports were A$3.2 billion.
Aerostructures is the most developed capability of the country's aviation industry and has "very great growth potential", but local companies, such as Hawker de Havilland, are hindered by their lack of access to risk share capital, the report suggests. If Hawker de Havilland had been able to take up the 2% equity stake in the Airbus A380 programme that was available to it, the value of Australian contracts in the programme would have increased tenfold, it says. Hawker de Havilland's contract, covering design and manufacture of aluminium alloy components for the A380's wingtips and wingtip fences, equates to just 0.02% of the A380 project value, says the report.
Software and electronics is also a "favourable niche" for Australian companies, such as systems integrator RLM Systems, but the segment is highly fragmented. Involvement in a global platform development is crucial to success in this sector, it says, calling for a single industry association to be established to position Australian industry as an equity participant.
Through-life aircraft support, including training, maintenance, repair, upgrades and modification, offers "a range of lucrative opportunities". But the challenge is to define opportunities unaffected by Australia's geographical position at the end of a long-haul route.
Light aircraft design and manufacture is a relatively new development in Australia, but the report notes that Queensland-based Jabiru Aircraft and Victoria-based Gipps-land Aeronautics are "carving out a niche based on robustness and low relative cost". Light engine design and manufacture, particularly diesel engines, also have "good prospects for growth", although international competition is intense.
In UAVs, where Australia has "a strong pedigree", growth prospects are "exponential", but threatened by international development programmes and export control issues.
Source: Flight International
