From Integration to Industrialisation: Enabling the Next Phase of AAM with Julian Del Campo of Regal Rexnord

In a recent con­ver­sa­tion with eVTOL Insights, Julian Del Cam­po, Direc­tor of Busi­ness Devel­op­ment at Regal Rexnord Aero­space Solu­tions, shared his per­spec­tive on how the Advanced Air Mobil­i­ty sec­tor is evolv­ing and what it will take to scale from inno­va­tion to real-world deploy­ment.

Del Cam­po also out­lined the company’s strate­gic direc­tion, the grow­ing impor­tance of sys­tem inte­gra­tion, and the oper­a­tional chal­lenges that will define the next phase of elec­tric avi­a­tion.

Advanced Air Mobil­i­ty is tran­si­tion­ing from con­cept to com­mer­cial real­i­ty but as the indus­try matures, the con­ver­sa­tion is adapt­ing. For Del Cam­po, the real chal­lenge is no longer just inno­va­tion, but exe­cu­tion at scale.

“A lot of the inno­va­tion we’re work­ing on inter­nal­ly is real­ly dri­ven by the elec­tri­fi­ca­tion of flight,” he explains. “Specif­i­cal­ly as it per­tains to the inte­gra­tion of our broad range of com­po­nents in our port­fo­lio.”

That port­fo­lio has expand­ed sig­nif­i­cant­ly in recent years, fol­low­ing a series of strate­gic merg­ers and acqui­si­tions. The result is a high­ly diver­si­fied offer­ing of core technologies—from motors and brakes to sen­sors, bear­ings and ball screws—all of which are fun­da­men­tal to electro­mechan­i­cal actu­a­tion sys­tems.

“We have a sig­nif­i­cant amount of very diverse com­po­nents and tech­nolo­gies that serve the aero­space indus­try,” Del Cam­po says. “And they are a great match for the emerg­ing elec­tri­fi­ca­tion of air­craft.”

But the shift under way in Advanced Air Mobil­i­ty is struc­tur­al as well as tech­no­log­i­cal. Tra­di­tion­al aero­space sup­ply chains, built around dis­crete com­po­nents and mul­ti­ple sup­pli­ers, are being chal­lenged by the need for inte­grat­ed, high-per­for­mance sys­tems deliv­ered at speed.

“In our case, we are able to bring the motor sup­pli­er, the gear man­u­fac­tur­ing expert, and oth­ers to the same meeting—all with­in one group,” he notes. “That allows a free flow of col­lab­o­ra­tion… and speeds up that com­mu­ni­ca­tion and design loop while every­one is on the same page.”

This empha­sis on inte­gra­tion is close­ly tied to one of the industry’s biggest hur­dles: scal­ing pro­duc­tion with­out com­pro­mis­ing aero­space-grade qual­i­ty and cer­ti­fi­ca­tion stan­dards.

“It’s a com­bi­na­tion tech­ni­cal and oper­a­tional prob­lem,” Del Cam­po explains. “How can we get prod­ucts into cus­tomers’ hands quick­ly so they can con­tin­ue test­ing, but also posi­tion our­selves to sup­port the scale required in the future?”

That future scale is not the­o­ret­i­cal. With pro­jec­tions for high-vol­ume eVTOL air­craft production—particularly in air taxi applications—suppliers must be ready to tran­si­tion from pro­to­type sup­port to indus­tri­al man­u­fac­tur­ing.

“We are in a good posi­tion right now,” he says. “We have 13 glob­al AS9100 facil­i­ties, and a lot of those have addi­tion­al capac­i­ty plan­ning for future vol­ume demands.”

How­ev­er, readi­ness goes beyond infra­struc­ture. It requires deep align­ment with cus­tomers, espe­cial­ly in a mar­ket where time­lines are aggres­sive and tech­nol­o­gy is evolv­ing rapid­ly.

“A lot of that comes through over-com­mu­ni­ca­tion and very strong rela­tion­ships with our cus­tomers and part­ners,” Del Cam­po adds. “Under­stand­ing who we believe in in the mar­ket and get­ting the tim­ing right is crit­i­cal.”

Col­lab­o­ra­tion is also extend­ing beyond tra­di­tion­al sup­pli­er-OEM rela­tion­ships. Strate­gic part­ner­ships are emerg­ing as a way to com­bine com­ple­men­tary strengths and accel­er­ate devel­op­ment.

“We’re pair­ing Honeywell’s flight con­trol actu­a­tion exper­tise with our com­po­nent pedi­gree and abil­i­ty to scale,” he says. “It’s a very com­ple­men­tary rela­tion­ship in what both groups bring to the table.”

At the same time, the tech­ni­cal land­scape of elec­tric air­craft is open­ing up entire­ly new areas of inno­va­tion. As hydraulic sys­tems are replaced with elec­tric alter­na­tives, even sec­ondary appli­ca­tions require fresh think­ing.

“There are so many dif­fer­ent appli­ca­tions that come up on these next-gen­er­a­tion air­craft,” Del Cam­po observes. “You’re replac­ing his­tor­i­cal­ly hydraulic sys­tems with brand new tech­nol­o­gy that needs to be scal­able, cost-effec­tive, and safe.”

Despite these chal­lenges, Del Cam­po remains opti­mistic about the tra­jec­to­ry of AAM—and the role sup­pli­ers can play in shap­ing it.

“It’s real­ly a ques­tion of when, not if, this indus­try will take off,” he says. “We’re look­ing to col­lab­o­rate and sup­port a broad range of customers—whether that’s through com­po­nents, inte­grat­ed sys­tems, or high­er-lev­el assem­blies.”

Ulti­mate­ly, suc­cess in advanced air mobil­i­ty will depend on the industry’s abil­i­ty to move beyond inno­va­tion and into indus­tri­al­i­sa­tion. For Del Cam­po, that means con­tin­u­ing to refine capa­bil­i­ties, deep­en part­ner­ships, and stay aligned with a mar­ket that is evolv­ing at pace.

“We just want to sup­port the growth of the indus­try wher­ev­er we can,” he con­cludes. “That’s how we see our role in enabling the future of flight.”

The full con­ver­sa­tion will be released next Thurs­day, as part of eVTOL Insights’ Pod­cast show.