Gippsland Aeronautics, Australia’s leading commercial aircraft manufacturer, today announced that the Australian Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) has upgraded the Type Certificate of the company’s GA8 Airvan utility aircraft to the latest and highest airworthiness standard available for this type of aircraft. Gippsland Aeronautics originally obtained CASA Certification of the Airvan in October 2000 against Amendment 48 of Federal Aviation Regulation 23 (FAR 23) and have now manufactured and delivered 22 examples of the type. The aircraft is now certificated by CASA to Amendment 54 of FAR 23. It is understood that the GA8 is the only aircraft in the world certified to this standard at this time. “This upgrading is the culmination of over two years work by Gippsland Aeronautics staff in association with CASA”, says the company's new Managing Director, Mr Peter Furlong. The upgrading of the Australian Certification has been conducted in preparation for US Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) and Transport Canada's Type Approval of the Airvan. Certification in both of these countries is being actively progressed. US FAA certification is anticipated in the near future. Mr Furlong says that the new standard has meant demonstrating higher levels of safety, mainly in respect of dynamic structural integrity, cabin fire safety and electrical systems. The flight-testing to meet the higher standard also included the rigorous Flight flutter test. The opportunity was also taken to enhance the Airvan’s Flight and Service manuals by incorporating more detail and additional data. Mr Furlong said, “The fact that there was no need to change any of the basic structure or mechanical components to achieve this upgraded certification reflects the integrity of the initial design of this rugged bush plane.” The Gippsland Aeronautics engineering team, under Engineering Manager Mark Bathie, has carried out the bulk of the work at Gippsland Aeronautics home base at Latrobe Regional Airport in Gippsland. Whilst the majority of the flying was carried out by company Flight Test Manager, David Wheatland, the highly specialised Flight Flutter Testing programme was conducted by Mr. Sean Roberts of the National Test Pilots School at Mojave California in the USA. Mr Furlong, who is the company founder, has recently resumed the leadership of the Company as Managing Director. Peter and his Co-Director George Morgan have been the driving forces behind the Airvan project from its inception. Peter and George acknowledge the outstanding effort of the Gippsland Aeronautics development, engineering, and production and support teams involved in this achievement. They also made particular mention of the assistance of CASA’s Principal Certification Engineer and GA8 Project Manager, Mr Peter Dall, and his team in progressing the certification to fruition. Never willing to rest on their laurels Gippsland Aeronautics have now commenced a program to fit Airbags to the Airvan to further enhance its safety. This program, conducted in collaboration with Amsafe, the world’s leading aviation seat belt manufacturer, will see the Airvan being the one of the first general aviation aircraft types in the world to be fitted with airbags. For further information please contact: Marguerite Morgan
Sales Coordinator,
Gippsland Aeronautics Phone 61 3 5172 1200 Email: sales@gippsaero.com |
