CA Lt-Gen Peter Leahy makes sure all is going well with production at the Tiger ARH facility in Brisbane. Photo by Pte John Wellfare, Army newspaper

Tigers coming in on time


ARH Assembly
(MPEG video 1.79 MB)


By Pte John Wellfare

ON TIME and on budget is the expectation of CA Lt-Gen Peter Leahy as expressed during a recent visit to Tiger ARH production facilities in Brisbane.

Australian Aerospace staff responsible for assembling 18 Tigers confirmed that those expectations would be met.

Tiger production manager for Australian Aerospace Graham Matthews said the production cycle for a helicopter like the Tiger had to be a long one.

“The first aircraft, we’ve actually allowed about two-and-a-quarter years for that, because we reasoned that we were 12,000 miles away from Eurocopter,” he said.

“[Production time] varies because in all production there’s a thing called learning curve – as you progress through the number of aircraft that you’re building you get better.

“We cannot improvise and we don’t. We have a very rigid quality system, which does, in itself, cause a lot of delays because we will not proceed on something until we’re sure that the parts are right and the documentation’s right.”

Mr Matthews said the Tiger was a far more sophisticated and technical helicopter than those on the civilian market, for which Australian Aerospace also caters.

“The biggest difference is the level of sophistication of the systems on board,” he said.

“We also assemble an aircraft here called an EC120. Ground test on the EC120 takes about half-a-day, because there’s nothing in it to test – that’s the equivalent of the Channel Nine helicopter.

“Tiger takes about four months from the start of ground test until you finish doing a full systems level test to ensure that the systems are all functioning.”

Visits by officials such as Lt-Gen Leahy as well as field staff in positions more closely linked to the Tiger have been and would continue to be welcomed by Australian Aerospace, according to Mr Matthews.

“We think they’re very important because it gives us the opportunity to show off our facility and we’re very proud of this facility,” he said.

“Secondly, there is a need to educate the wider Army community in the project and that can only help us downstream.

“We’ve got a lot of people out there who are the ultimate customers ... the people who are going to be operating the aeroplane – the pilots who are going to fly it, the people who are going to maintain it and the people who are going to be involved in whatever supply chain the Army has for the aircraft.

“All those people need to know something about this aeroplane and from my point of view it helps us downstream to have these people educated now.

“So we regard these visits, not as an incumbrance, but as opportunity to teach the wider [Defence] community about the aircraft and the project and [that will] hopefully help us down the track.”

Facilities to house 1 Avn Regt’s prospective compliment of 17 Tigers have began construction in Darwin.

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