Niall McGirr is an electronic engineer and a partner in Irish data acquisition systems designer Acra Control. How did he graduate from Siemens staffer to entrepreneur?
How did you get into the aerospace industry?
After graduating from Dublin City University I kept in close contact with three fellow electronic engineering student friends. Three of us went to Germany and one to the USA.
I worked with Siemens in Munich, working on micro controllers; one of the other guys was working with a small German company providing a local engineering service for the aerospace industry.
He recognised that there were a lot of one-off designs for difficult applications or a standard old-fashioned US system and identified a need to produce a modern, technologically advanced, data acquisition system.
The four of us got together and created the company.
And was it successful straight away?
We had help from Enterprise Ireland, the Irish government’s business development agency, and learned very quickly that we had no customers, no products and no experience – just an idea.
But the aerospace industry recognises innovation and we were able to develop the product that is now used as a major instrumentation solution for flight testing on many of the latest airframe platforms ranging from the Eurofighter Typhoon and the Airbus Military A400M to the Airbus A380.
What does your job involve?
We share the responsibilities and I look after the marketing function. Because of my practical electrical engineering background, I am able to understand the requirements the different programmes have and look at how our technology can meet those needs.
We are moving from flight-test programmes to ongoing operations and every day provides more opportunity.
We now provide products in more than 30 countries in the most demanding applications for fixed- and rotary-wing aircraft, space vehicles and unmanned air vehicles.
What has been the highlight of your aerospace career?
Undoubtedly it was being at the Paris air show last year and seeing the A380 fly in, knowing that we had 65 boxes collecting flight-test data from the wing spars and the engines. We were part of aviation history – part of a step up in technology.
What was the low point?
It was the early days when there were just four of us and the money was disappearing fast. Enterprise Ireland helped us understand it was up to us to get out and look for buyers. We did and it worked.
What would your advice be to other electronic engineers who may be interested in an aviation career?
The horizon is wider than you may think. There are many avenues, technologies and applications that may not yet be part of the industry. Think about innovations and how they could apply to aerospace. It is an exciting place to be.
■ flight.workingweek@rbi.co.uk
Source: Flight International
