Australian drone manufacturer and solutions provider, Carbonix, is partnering with Quickstep Holdings, Australia’s largest independent manufacturer of aerospace composites, to manufacture aerostructures for its Volanti drones.
Volanti is Carbonix’s smallest all electric fixed-wing VTOL UAV (Vertical take-off and landing Un-crewed Aerial Vehicle). The deal is the foundation of a broader manufacturing partnership which will in future include all Carbonix platforms.
Quickstep manufactures high complexity composite components for aircraft such as the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, C-130J, F/A-18 and F-15E.
Components for the Volanti aircraft will be manufactured at Quickstep’s Geelong facility, allowing Carbonix to initially fulfill an order from Anduril, the U.S. defence tech startup founded by tech entrepreneur Palmer Luckey that recently won a $US1 billion counter-drone contract from the US Special Operations Command.
Carbonix currently assembles and integrates all its UAV platforms in-house at its Sydney facility. The manufacturing deal will immediately ramp-up production of Volanti airframes.
“With state-of-the-art facilities in New South Wales and Victoria, Carbonix is thrilled to be partnering with Quickstep and their highly trained and enthusiastic workforce, renowned for their innovative approach," said Carbonix CEO, Philip van der Burg.
“Quickstep’s global reputation for their quality and expertise in aerospace manufacturing is critical in ensuring the highest standards we expect to deliver to our customers as well as continuing our path to aircraft certification."
“Manufacturing the Volanti aerostructure at our Geelong site is a great first step in what we look forward to being a long-term partnership across the Carbonix range of UAS. We’re excited to be a core part of their export success, taking Australian built UAS capability to the world," Steve Osborne, Quickstep Applied Composites Business Leader said.