Airvan production re-started yesterday when the first new airframe in five years began its journey through the GippsAero factory at Latrobe Regional Airport.
GippsAero marked the occasion with a keel-laying ceremony during which co-founder and owner George Morgan and Production Manager Daniel Blake set the first rivet in the floor structure of Airvan serial number 263.
New GA8 Airvans have not been made since 2020 when then owner Mahindra closed the orders books and shut down production. The re-start comes 18 months after George Morgan wrested back ownership.
"After a long period of corporate ownership, we were eventually able to buy the company back again," Morgan said as he addressed a gathering of around 100 people, which included local and federal politicians, customers, former employees and aviation identities.
"It's been a huge effort since for a lot of people here ... we always knew we could do it again once we got the company back. A lot of people were watching to see if we could get the whole place up and running again."
Since reclaiming GippsAero, the Morgan family–George, wife Marguerite, son David and daughter-in-law Sarah–has been slowly re-establishing production at Latrobe Valley, repairing and refurbishing existing aircraft as a way to spark the factory back to production levels, as well as continuing to manufacture spare parts.
Morgan had previously indicated that new Airvans would include upgrades the industry had adopted during the manufacturing hiatus, and yesterday outlined the direction that was heading.
"We do have some improvements coming up," he said, "lightweight props, some engine improvements, there's a push for larger wheels from Alaska, so we do have some engineering changes ahead of us, and further development."
With customers lining-up to buy refurbished Airvans, the company found a level of resistance when it came to putting down deposits for new aircraft. The Morgan family considered the best way to show people that it was really going to happen was to start production again.
Now, although there is no destination customer for serial 263, GippsAero has found that operators have seen that production is starting again and are now "hovering" around the new airframe.
But the production restart has benefitted the GA industry in more ways that just new Airvans. David Morgan highlighted some of the impacts the last 18 months have had on both GippsAero and the aviation industry as the family worked to get the company back to manufacturing new aircraft again. When Mahindra got out, the company had only seven employees.
"It's been a massive effort," he told the gathering, "and we've got 43 employees now and seven apprentices. We've generated through sales of aircraft parts and services $5.9 million in revenue. Of that, $2.7 has gone into wages and $3.6 million has gone back into Australian suppliers, and $800,000 to overseas suppliers.
"Just in Victoria, we've put $1 million back into suppliers.
"For a company that was almost doors-closed and walk-away, to turn it around in 18 months ... hats-off to everyone involved from the supply-chain network, local council and absolutely everyone that has been involved.
"One of our biggest goals in GippsAero is to restore the family feeling that we've had in the business, so when you buy an Airvan, you don't just buy an Airvan, you buy into a family. And that's right through from the people who put the aircraft together, the operators, the customer and everyone involved."
George Morgan and Peter Furlong founded GippsAero in 1984 modifying Piper Pawnees, then certified their own type, the GA200 Fatman aerial ag aircraft in 1991. Seeing a niche for a utility aircraft, they designed the GA8 Airvan, which was certified in 2000. Needing seed cash to develop the single-engine turbo-prop GA10, controlling share of GippsAero was sold to Indian conglomerate Mahindra in 2010.
By the time Mahindra ceased manufacture in 2020, GippsAero had built 262 Airvans, which means more Airvans have been produced than any other Australian-manufactured type.
Airframe #263 is due for completion–and no doubt delivery–in 2026.