How Regal Rexnord Leverages Cross-Industry Experience to Accelerate AAM Development

This arti­cle was orig­i­nal­ly pub­lished by Avi­a­tion Week Net­work.

Avi­a­tion Week Net­work spoke with John Mey­er and Julian Del Cam­po of Regal Rexnord Aero­space Solu­tions (RRX) to learn how the com­pa­ny is lever­ag­ing its aero­space exper­tise and indus­tri­al capa­bil­i­ties to meet the
chal­lenges of the emerg­ing eVTOL and Advanced Air Mobil­i­ty mar­kets.

Avi­a­tion Week: How do the emerg­ing eVTOL and AAM mar­kets impact the aero­space indus­try?

John Mey­er: “AAM is revi­tal­iz­ing the indus­try, ush­er­ing in a new era. We’re see­ing the devel­op­ment of 20 to 30 new air­frames, inno­v­a­tive propul­sion sys­tems, and all-elec­tric flight con­trols that are replac­ing tra­di­tion­al hydraulic sys­tems. It’s a flood of new tech­nolo­gies arriv­ing in a short span — trans­for­ma­tive for the sup­ply chain and how sup­pli­ers oper­ate. It’s the most excit­ing and dynam­ic peri­od I can remem­ber.“

Julian Del Cam­po: “There’s a need for new tech­ni­cal solu­tions and automation—at a scale aero­space hasn’t seen. There are also infra­struc­ture needs like ver­ti­ports and new MRO approach­es. A Deloitte study pro­ject­ed the mar­ket to exceed $100 bil­lion by 2035 and cre­ate close to 280,000 new jobs. It has impli­ca­tions far beyond aero­space.”

Avi­a­tion Week: What chal­lenges do you fore­see for sup­pli­ers in the AAM mar­ket?

JM: “It’s a dis­rup­tor requir­ing trans­for­ma­tive approach­es. You’re either a tra­di­tion­al aero­space sup­pli­er with low-vol­ume, high-mix busi­ness, or a tra­di­tion­al indus­tri­al sup­pli­er expe­ri­enced in high vol­umes.

“Tra­di­tion­al aero­space must piv­ot to high vol­umes, with automa­tion, new facil­i­ties, and reimag­ined sub-tier strate­gies. Indus­tri­al sup­pli­ers must instill AS9100 process­es and change their cul­ture to meet qual­i­ty sys­tems required for air­craft that fly with pas­sen­gers.“

JDC: “It’s about under­stand­ing mar­ket risk and where to engage. There’s uncer­tain­ty about tim­ing and which air­craft will enter ser­vice suc­cess­ful­ly. With 26 OEMs in the SMG AAM Real­i­ty Index, how do you pick win­ners?

“You can either spread resources too thin going after too many or miss out on the suc­cess­ful one. Plus, there’s new electro­mechan­i­cal fly-by-wire tech­nolo­gies and reg­u­la­to­ry issues adding to tim­ing uncer­tain­ty.”

Avi­a­tion Week: How does RRX’s expe­ri­ence in com­mer­cial and mil­i­tary aero­space trans­late to the AAM Mar­ket?

JDC: “We believe the best path com­bines influ­ences to solve this com­plex prob­lem. We have exten­sive aero­space and defense his­to­ry, along with indus­tri­al and robot­ics expe­ri­ence that brings faster devel­op­ment
cycles and cost-effec­tive meth­ods.

“Also, we can lever­age method­olo­gies from oth­er mar­kets to bal­ance aero­space solu­tions and indus­tri­al approach­es, mak­ing mod­i­fi­ca­tions to mate­ri­als and coat­ings to make designs suit­able for aero­space require­ments.”

JM: “Our aero­space pedi­gree means we’re famil­iar with devel­op­ment mile­stones, tech­ni­cal require­ments, and reg­u­la­to­ry standards—that’s our DNA.

“Through recent acqui­si­tions, we have a tremen­dous port­fo­lio of exist­ing designs from mul­ti­ple divi­sions, all pre­vi­ous­ly test­ed to rig­or­ous aero­space envi­ron­men­tal stan­dards. We build elec­tric com­po­nents and mechan­i­cal sys­tems already used in fly-by-wire air­craft. The align­ment to all-elec­tric air­planes is a per­fect match.”

Avi­a­tion Week: How does RRX sup­port the AAM mar­ket regard­ing FAA reg­u­la­tions?

JM: “We’ve active­ly engaged with reg­u­la­tors and law­mak­ers, meet­ing reg­u­lar­ly with the FAA. The ulti­mate mes­sage is that the Unit­ed States must pri­or­i­tize AAM and eVTOL to be the glob­al leader in these tech­nolo­gies and mar­ket over­all.“

JDC: “The 2024 Reau­tho­riza­tion Act and pow­er­lift cat­e­go­ry cre­ation were great first steps. But there’s also a grass­roots approach need­ed. With nine AS9100 facil­i­ties in the U.S., and 13 around the world, we can sup­port broad­er accep­tance of addi­tion­al air­craft in our air­ways, espe­cial­ly for Urban Air Mobil­i­ty where
local sup­port is key.”

Avi­a­tion Week: How does RRX Aero­space Solu­tions serve the AAM mar­ket?

JDC: “We have one indus­tri­al divi­sion that builds 60,000 actu­a­tors per year on a sin­gle line with takt times as low as four min­utes. These process­es aren’t a direct fit for aero­space but can help stream­line it. Com­bin­ing A&D cer­ti­fied AS9100 divi­sions with high-vol­ume process exper­tise puts us in a unique posi­tion to sup­port
aggres­sive project time­lines.”

JM: “We’re an engi­neer­ing com­pa­ny pro­vid­ing engi­neered solu­tions direct to OEMs or major tier one sup­pli­ers. Our glob­al AS9100 facil­i­ties can serve cus­tomers direct­ly with elec­tric motors, brakes, sen­sors, and mechan­i­cal prod­ucts.

“And we’ve inte­grat­ed our cer­ti­fied com­po­nents into com­plete electro­mechan­i­cal actu­a­tors. Since these air­craft are fly-by-wire and we have cer­ti­fied, proven com­po­nents, design­ing them into actu­a­tors is straight­for­ward.

“Recent­ly, we host­ed a Kaizen event with 68 team mem­bers from all divi­sions. We spent a week togeth­er, com­bin­ing experts who under­stand high-vol­ume process­es with those who under­stand aero­space require­ments. It’s an ongo­ing process to bet­ter align our designs and man­u­fac­tur­ing to this mar­ket.”

ABOUT THE EXPERTS

John Mey­er is Senior Direc­tor, Mar­ket­ing at Regal Rexnord Aero­space Solu­tions, lead­ing the Aero­space Ver­ti­cal Mar­ket and over­see­ing Busi­ness Devel­op­ment, Glob­al Strate­gic Accounts and Pro­gram Man­age­ment. With 39 years of aero­space and defense expe­ri­ence, he now focus­es on elec­tric air­craft cer­ti­fi­ca­tion and ser­vice entry.

Julian Del Cam­po is Senior Busi­ness Devel­op­ment Man­ag­er at Regal Rexnord Aero­space Solu­tions, devel­op­ing the strate­gic roadmap for Elec­tro-Mechan­i­cal Actu­a­tors and dri­ving ver­ti­cal inte­gra­tion across divi­sions. His back­ground spans Engi­neer­ing and Prod­uct Man­age­ment in both indus­tri­al and aero­space mar­kets.