Andrzej Jeziorski/SINGAPORE
South-east Asia has yet to establish itself as a significant aerospace manufacturing region. Some of the more industrially ambitious Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries have however been pushing for recognition in the field.
Local manufacturing capacity in the affluent city-state of Singapore is concentrated in Singapore Aerospace Manufacturing (SAM) - a subsidiary of Singapore Technologies Precision Engineering which makes aerofoils, engine casings, engine mounts and landing gear. Singapore Technologies Aerospace has focused on maintenance, repair and overhaul, and on upgrade work.
In Malaysia, prime minister Mahathir Mohammed is encouraging his nation's small aerospace industry to grow as part of a plan to make Malaysia a fully industrialised, high-tech nation by 2020. A key manufacturer in this country is state-owned SME Aviation, which has produced the Swiss-designed MD3-160 Aerotiga two-seat, piston prop trainer since 1994, and is pursuing subcontracts such as the production of forward lower lobe assemblies for the LMATTS C-27J military transport.
There have been talks between Malaysian maintenance and modification specialist Airod and Russian industry, on the possibility of licensed manufacture of Mil Mi-17 helicopters.
Aircraft development
But the only country in the region which has so far attempted to take on a large-scale, indigenous aircraft development and production programme has been Indonesia. The recent history of Industri Pesawat Terbang Nusantara (IPTN) is more of a cautionary tale than a success story - though the management is trying to change this.
IPTN - based in Bandung, 180km south-east of Jakarta -says that its aim is "to become a centre of excellence in aerospace, mainly in producing regional commuter (aircraft) that have a seating capacity of 20 to 130 passengers". According to the company, its strategy is first to transfer aerospace technology, and second to become a "private profit-making enterprise".
IPTN was founded in 1976, following a mandate given by Indonesia's ex-president Suharto to aerospace engineer Bacharuddin Habibie, who was also appointed research and technology minister in 1978 and later succeeded Suharto to the presidency after he was ousted in 1998.
In its first stage of development, the company laid a foundation for acquiring technical know-how through licensed manufacture and subcontracting. This included manufacturing the NC212 Aviocar under licence from Spain's CASA, as well as acquiring helicopter production licences from Aerospatiale, Bell and MBB.
The intention was to proceed from these programmes, through a joint venture phase which culminated in the development together with CASA of the Airtech CN235, to a third phase of indigenous aircraft programmes. The first of these has been the N250 regional turboprop. The company has also been pushing its N2130, a 110- to 130-seat regional jet programme, though there seems to be little hope that this will progress beyond the drawing board.
The ambitious N2130 was to mark the company's entry into jet manufacture, and would include innovations in composites, avionics and cabin design. Although the company is still promoting the programme, saying it aims for a 2006 in-service date, it has failed to find a partner to finance it.
Initial studies date back to 1994, and the company says it has completed preliminary design. But in February, at this year's Asian Aerospace show in Singapore, IPTN chief executive S Paramajuda told Flight International that the company now wants to sell the programme off entirely.
Even then, observers doubt that a buyer will be forthcoming. After all, the programme overlaps both the lower end of well-established Airbus and Boeing products, and the higher end of emerging regional jet programmes from manufacturers such as Bombardier, Embraer and Fairchild Dornier. Other new players such as Alliance Aircraft are now also pushing to enter a regional jet market generally thought to be big enough for only two to three players.
Struggling for certification
IPTN has been struggling to certificate the N250, launched with government support in 1989. This support dried up in early 1998 after the region's financial collapse, as a condition laid down by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for its $40 billion-plus rescue package for Indonesia. Certification flight testing of the two existing prototypes, and construction of the third, ground to a halt soon after.
At the time the IMF restrictions came into force, N250 certification was set for March 1999. IPTN has since searched fruitlessly for an investor who will supply the $90 million required to complete the process. According to vice-president commercial and operations Heru Santoso, the company has flown around 850h of flight tests on the two prototypes - the 50-seat N250-50 development aircraft PA1 having flown about 650h and the larger, 60-seat N250-100 prototype PA2 about 200h.
"We still need to finish the third prototype. This will be much more like the customer configuration," says Santoso. He adds that about 1,700 flight test hours are required for certification, and although the two existing prototypes have been flown "for maintenance purposes" during the last two years, these flights do not count towards certification.
Until the N250 can overcome its hurdles, IPTN's main products will remain the CN235 turboprop transport programme it shares with CASA. Eight CN235s were delivered last year, bringing total Indonesian production of this type to 43 (CASA has its own assembly line).
The main customers for the aircraft have been the Indonesian armed forces, as well as those of Malaysia, South Korea and Thailand. Eight orders are outstanding for South Korea, with deliveries from mid-2001. Three maritime patrol variants are on order from the Indonesian air force for delivery in 2002-2003.
NC212 production will soon dry up, however. IPTN holds a licence for 108 deliveries, and has completed 95. It also holds licences from Eurocopter to produce NBO105 and NAS332 Super Puma helicopters, and from Bell to produce the 412 helicopter, known as the NBELL-412, but delivery rates have been low. Five NBO105s were delivered last year, says IPTN, but there were no deliveries of the other two types.
Receiving considerable government backing upon its launch enabled IPTN to acquire state-of-the-art manufacturing technology early on. It has 792,800m² of factory floor, and employs 5,388 direct production staff and 3,191 indirect production staff (inspectors, production controllers etc) out of a workforce of 10,598.
The total workforce has been cut by about a third since 1999 because of the financial difficulties. "Now we hope we can support [a production rate of] 12 aircraft annually," says operations vice-president Suroto Dikoen.
The company's fabrication division processes raw materials, pre-cuts and forms them into components for assembly by the fixed wing, rotary wing and weapons systems divisions. The fabrication division also manufactures production tools and jigs. It has shops for metal forming - with 23 forming machines - subassembly, surface treatment, bonding and composites. It also manufactures components for other industries beyond IPTN's own programmes.
Since its founding, IPTN has used state-of-the-art optical milling machines. It has 180 conventional milling machines, and 60 touch-in numerical control machines (TNC). Since 1985, it has also operated 63 computerised numerical control (CNC) machines. In addition it has introduced chemical milling processes which allow the easy manufacture of 5mm thick components.
Three autoclaves have been installed in the company's plastic bonding shop for a quick turnaround on large orders of bonded materials. The company is using this bonding technology in manufacturing composite materials.
IPTN's composite airframe component manufacturing covers such items as the flaps, ailerons and leading edges of the CN235 wing. The technology was acquired from CASA, as well as from subcontracts carried out for Boeing on the 737 and 777 programmes, and for Lockheed Martin-IPTN built fin skins and other components for the F-16. Composite manufacturing techniques would have been developed further for the N2130, although this is now unlikely to go any further.
Dikoen says IPTN puts a high priority on quality control, with a quality assurance division included in the corporate group. "At IPTN, quality control is undertaken at every phase of production, starting from design, hardware handling, fabrication, assembly and finally flight test, until the aircraft is declared airworthy or is in accord with safety requirements," says IPTN.
Finding investors
But despite its technology and its know-how, IPTN is still struggling to right itself now that the rug of state funding has been pulled out from under its feet. Potential investors remain to be convinced that the company has a realistic business plan in an age when civil turboprops are giving way to regional jets, and the jet market has been cornered by well-established competitors.
IPTN still faces the challenge of defining its own commercial raison d'etre, apart from the political motivation of national prestige.
Source: Flight International
