Plane Support recently announced that Australia’s Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) has granted the company Australian Parts Manufacturer Approval (APMA) to manufacture 3D-printed cabin air conditioning ducting for the 214B helicopter.

Under a project started by McDermott Aviation, Plane Support can now use additive manufacturing to produce ducting components for the 214B (B-1) helicopter after nearly two years of development and planning.

As holder of the 214B aircraft’s Type Certificate, McDermott Aviation is also the largest operator of the helicopter across the globe. The company commenced the project to respond to component sourcing challenges surrounding replacement parts for the aircraft.

"An aircraft waiting on a component you can't easily get hold of is an aircraft that isn't working," said McDermott Aviation Founder and President John McDermott, "Being able to have approved parts made here in Queensland gives us far more control over that."

Plane Support produces these components by taking 3D scans of original 214B ducting and developing digital models that are then reverse engineered and optimized for additive manufacturing.

To support the project, Plane Support created a dedicated laboratory for aerospace additive manufacturing that centers around the Markforged FX10 industrial 3D printing platform.

The company also ensured compliance with all CASA airworthiness requirements by taking care when developing:

• Quality systems
• Production controls
• Inspection methods

Plane Support Director of Engineering Jason Hazell said, "Ducting sounds simple until you try to reproduce it. These are complex shapes that have to fit exactly and perform in the aircraft just as the originals do, and we had to prove every step of that to CASA."

Hazell continued, "We didn't have an established process to follow, so we developed our own procedures, quality systems and inspection methods and worked them through with CASA. That groundwork now gives us a pathway for other components and other aircraft types."

McDermott commented, "We own the Type Certificate for this aircraft, so keeping it supported sits with us.”

He continued, “Jason and his team have spent almost two years getting this right, and to now have received CASA approval is tremendously exciting news—not just from our perspective but in terms of the manufacturing capability we are developing here in Australia."

Hazell noted, "McDermott Aviation brought decades of knowledge of operating and maintaining this aircraft and we brought the engineering, manufacturing and approvals side.”

“It was a joint effort from start to finish and demonstrates the results that can be achieved when we look for solutions that simply didn't exist a decade ago," added Hazell.