Hybrid Air Vehicles (HAV), a British manufacturer of hybrid airships, was recently awarded a Production Organisation Approval from Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), enabling HAV to launch production.

HAV, the company behind the innovative Airlander hybrid aircraft, was awarded a Design Organisation Approval from the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) in October 2018.

A Production Organisation Approval (POA) considers the manufacture and assembly aspects of aircraft production. This includes supply chain management, processes relating to manufacture and assembly, and the production facility itself. Both the Design Organisation Approval (DOA), which covers design activities and flight test, and the POA, covering manufacture and assembly, are required to move forward into a type certification programme with the production Airlander 10.

It typically takes over a year to prepare a facility for a POA audit, a statement said.

HAV only moved into its production facility, the Airlander Technology Centre, in June and were able to be audit-ready in under six months. This success is down to the effort of the production team, led by Ivor Pope, the statement added.

In addition to preparing the facility, the team at Technology House has been working to establish rigorous supply chain and quality assurance processes.

“The POA approval is a significant milestone for HAV. It is the culmination of months of hard work and focused effort,” commented David Lindley, HAV’s head of Aviation Safety & Quality Assurance. “It demonstrates that the safety, quality assurance, and supply chain management processes are in place, along with the production facility.”

“Successfully being awarded our POA in the same year as our DOA is fantastic,” added executive director Nick Allman. “The POA is the regulator’s stamp of approval for us to move ahead with the productionisation of Airlander 10 on the path to type certification. This puts us in a great position going into 2019.”

Founded in 2007, Hybrid Air Vehicles is the company behind the innovative Airlander hybrid aircraft. Airlander can take off and land from virtually any flat surface and offers a powerful combination of flexibility, persistence, payload capacity, and efficiency. Airlander is suitable for roles from surveillance and border patrol to search & rescue and expeditionary tourism. – TradeArabia News Service