De Havilland Australia - Building Aircraft Again

Building Aircraft Again

Following the cancellation of the Wamira, HdH resumed production of complete aircraft in 1987 after it was selected to build a version of the Pilatus PC-9 under licence for the RAAF. HdH was responsible for final assembly of 67 aircraft (known as the PC-9/A), initially from components supplied by Pilatus, but with the components for the final 48 examples produced by HdHV and GAF (which by this time had been privatised and renamed Aerospace Technologies of Australia) (ASTA). In May 1988 HdH delivered the first Bankstown-assembled Sikorsky Blackhawk to the RAAF. After eight had been built the RAAF's helicopters were transferred to the Australian Army; HdH deliveries continued to the Army until the last of 38 locally-assembled aircraft was delivered in January 1991. In March the following year the last PC-9/A was delivered. Also in 1992 HdH was de-listed from the Australian Stock Exchange when it was sold to BTR Nylex.

The PC-9/A was the last complete aircraft type to be built by HdH, although RAAF Caribous could still be seen at Bankstown until 1994. During the same time period HdH was involved in the McDonnell Douglas Helicopters MDX project, HdH being responsible for the manufacture of the tail boom and HdHV being responsible for both design and manufacture of the fuselage. In 1998 the company was bought by Tenix and Hawker Pacific was sold to Swedish company Celsius. In 2000 Tenix sold HdH to Boeing which merged the company with ASTA to form Hawker de Havilland Aerospace within Boeing Australia. Today HdH is in the forefront of composite structures technology and manufactures composite and alloy components for the Airbus A320 family, Airbus A330, Airbus A340, Airbus A380, Bombardier Challenger 300, Boeing 737, Boeing 747 and Boeing 777 as well as for several military aerospace programmes.