Hybrid Air Vehicles (HAV) has followed up its EASA Design Organisation Approval (DOA), granted in October 2018, with Production Organisation Approval (POA) from the UK’s Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), awarded at the end of 2018.
A 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 DOA, which covers design activities and flight test, and the POA, covering manufacture and assembly, are required to move forward into a type certification program with the production Airlander 10.
It typically takes more than a year to prepare a facility for a POA audit. HAV only moved into its production facility, the Airlander Technology Centre, in June 2018, and was able to be audit-ready in under six months. The company attributes this success to the efforts of its production team, led by Ivor Pope. 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,” said David Lindley, head of aviation safety and quality assurance at HAV. “It is the culmination of months of hard work and focused effort. 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,” said Nick Allman, executive director. “The POA is the regulator’s stamp of approval for us to move ahead with the production of Airlander 10 on the path to type certification. This puts us in a great position going into 2019.”
