Due to the rapid growth of our already established partner Pipistrel Aircraft we responded to their need to scale composite production also using the capacity of AFormX.

During early 2021 we had already positioned ourselves as a supplier of most critical and complicated structural parts.

Therefore Pipistrel awarded us the tailplane set for the their electrical certified programme. Tailplanes are always critical since they are extremely tightly controlled in regards to the mass and moments.

The main challenges for this project were:

• AFormX had to fulfill Tier-1 supplier requirements to produce primary structural parts for EASA certified aircraft parts
• The required ramp-up of production was very rapid
• The product is technically challenging with very tightly controlled tolerances
• The surface finish of Pipistrel composites is world-leading and AFormX had to reach this level immediately

The tailplane set for the Velis Electro composes the:

• horizontal stabiliser
• elevator
• rudder

Due to the required ramp-up, the complete AFormX company dedicated fully to ensure the required rate of production was met.

Using the CompoHub/CompoWIN training system the new employees were selected and trained in a matter of weeks. In a few months great leaders emerged from this selection and this was the key enabler that ensured that we had met the delivery targets.

The quality of layups and bonding was never in question and soon AFormX supplied tailplanes were renowned for the quality. Empty mass is critical for electric aircraft, since the mass of the batteries is high. Therefore the structure must be as light as possible. During the production evolution we had been able to gradually reduce the mass of the tailplane parts by careful and analytical control of the bonding and layup.

The greatest challenge for us was to deliver the required quality of surface finish within the available budget.