Mincham applies defence and civil aeroskills

An Adelaide-based SME illustrates some of the challenges and rewards of operating in a specialist industry niche.
Defence and industry capability resembles a large, broad-based pyramid. Down near the base in both cases are the Small to Medium Enterprises (SMEs) which underpin both the defence industry and, to a growing extent, the Australian Defence Force itself.

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Established in 1996 as a sheet metalwork sub-contractor by ex-RAAF technician Darryl Mincham, the company was certified by CASA in 1998 as a CAR 30 aerospace maintenance organisation. By maintaining a careful balance between civil and defence work, Mincham has steered his company through a lingering malaise in the General Aviation sector which has seen many of his competitors and contemporaries shut up shop or seek other directions.

Mincham Aviation is now the only CASA-certified component sheet metal welding shop in South Australia and one of only a handful certified to carry out heat treatment, machining and piston engine cylinder overhaul (Lycoming and Continental), along with composite structure design, fabrication and repair.

Much of its business would originally have gone to local firms such as Tenix Aviation (the former Rossair) which has made a deliberate decision to focus on some core capabilities and let others go. For example, while Rossair manufactured the first of the P-3C bomb bay cargo panniers designed by Australian Flight Test Services, Mincham Aviation has built the panniers subsequently ordered by the Canadians and Norwegians.

Darryl Mincham's goal is to make his company a one-stop shop for military and civil aerostructures. With a CAR-35 accredited in-house design capability the company can offer a complete service, from initial design to painted product. This offers a considerable benefit to clients, he believes: the saving in time and management overheads compared with taking the same product or repair to separate shops for successive parts of the manufacture or repair process is significant.

The company now has a blue chip defence and commercial client list, including Tenix, for whom it fabricates EW pods and composite radomes, BAE Systems, for whom it fabricated the airframe modifications for the RAAF's Beechcraft 350 navigation trainers, the Royal Flying Doctor Service, for whom it manufactures and maintains the AFTS-designed stretchers and stretcher loading devices, as well as carrying out PC-12 and Beechcraft 200 aerostructure repairs and refurbishments, Raytheon, for whom it manufactures parts for the company's Learjet 35 EW trainer, the DMO's Maritime Patrol SPO and L-3 Communications at RAAF Edinburgh, for whom it manufactures Orion avionics cooling air ducting, and DSTO for whom it carries out prototyping and proofing work.

The company also overhauls Boeing 727 wing flaps and leading edge surfaces for National Jet Systems, and composite air ducting for CHC Helicopters' range of Bell and Sikorsky rescue and utility helicopters.

Remarkably, Mincham Aviation employs only seven people, but they're hand-
Mincham teaches the odd class at Parafield TAFE, where he believes a new generation of properly skilled aircraft tradespeople is emerging, but he still finds he needs to provide additional training for some of the tradespeople he has recruited over the past few years. The growing demand for high-end skills in composites manufacture and repair will make trade training an even more significant issue in the future.

Hangar 51 at Parafield, where the company is based, contains a comprehensive range of sheet metal and welding tools and equipment and fully equipped machine and paint shops. Darryl Mincham started the company in a small corner of this hangar; incubated by AFTS. Now he occupies all of it, and sub-lets a small space to other suppliers.

And he has also invested heavily in a composites autoclave, two curing ovens (one of them mobile) and a climate controlled composites lay up facility. While sheet metal work has long been a core trade in the military and commercial aviation sectors, composites are increasingly important and Mincham Aviation has won repeat business from companies such as Tenix. This is due in large part to its ability to design and manufacture quite large composite components such as fairings and radomes to a tolerance of less than 0.1mm.

And the skills are transferable outside the aerospace sector: the company helped designed and built the high-strength carbon fibre rotor shroud for ADI's towed acoustic mine decoy, which is manufactured by another local firm, Resonance Technologies. It has supported ballistic armour testing for Tenix's M-113 upgrade program. And if you want the cylinder block of your Harley Davidson machined, Mincham will do that as well.

But it's a reflection of the times that a small, seven-man company can play such a dominant role in this specialised sector in a state with such an investment in commercial and military aviation.

By Gregor Ferguson, Adelaide