Supernal announce key partnership deals with Qarbon Aerospace and GKN Aerospace for its eVTOL aircraft

As the del­uge of break­ing news con­tin­ues from the Paris Air­show, Super­nal has announced two busi­ness part­ner­ships today. First, with Qar­bon Aero­space to pro­duce eVTOL com­po­nents and sec­ond with GKN Aero­space to con­struct light­weight aero struc­tures and elec­tri­cal wiring inter­con­nec­tion sys­tems.

In fact, to show how col­lab­o­ra­tions are increas­ing with­in the eVTOL and VTOL indus­try, fur­ther news was released today about GKN con­cern­ing a part­ner­ship with Joby Avi­a­tion to build the aircraft’s design flight con­trol sur­faces.

But back to Super­nal.

The com­pa­ny and Qar­bon Aero­space have announced a col­lab­o­ra­tion “to mature com­po­nent weld­ing tech­niques for future scaled pro­duc­tion of elec­tric ver­ti­cal take­off and land­ing (eVTOL) vehi­cles,” reports a press release.

The release states “As a lead­ing man­u­fac­tur­er of com­pos­ite com­po­nents and assem­blies for com­mer­cial and mil­i­tary air­craft and space­craft, Qar­bon Aero­space will work with Super­nal to apply its induc­tion weld­ing tech­nol­o­gy to the assem­bly of the Company’s ther­mo­plas­tic car­bon com­pos­ite vehi­cle com­po­nents. The com­pa­nies will work to scale Qar­bon Aerospace’s estab­lished weld­ing process, devel­op­ing a man­u­fac­tur­ing roadmap to meet future eVTOL vehi­cle order demands.”

Jai­won Shin

Jai­won Shin, Pres­i­dent of Hyundai Motor Group and CEO of Super­nal, com­ment­ed, “By incor­po­rat­ing advanced mate­ri­als and process­es in our man­u­fac­tur­ing strat­e­gy from the start, Super­nal will be pre­pared to expand eVTOL vehi­cle pro­duc­tion capac­i­ty to meet demand surges when the indus­try takes off.”

The eVTOL com­pa­ny is invest­ing sig­nif­i­cant time and resources into “cre­at­ing a new form of avi­a­tion man­u­fac­tur­ing that mar­ries aerospace’s high cer­ti­fi­ca­tion stan­dards and automotive’s high-rate pro­duc­tion tech­nolo­gies.”

Part­ner­ing with major aero­space sup­pli­ers, such as Qar­bon Aero­space, to process­es and costs asso­ci­at­ed with the join­ing of lighter-weight com­po­nents for its eVTOL vehi­cles will improve. At the same time, Super­nal “is work­ing with Hyundai Motor Group to cre­ate a roadmap for inte­grat­ing the auto­mo­tive giant’s auto­mat­ed man­u­fac­tur­ing tech­nolo­gies into a scal­able dig­i­tal fac­to­ry mod­el, which will fur­ther reduce the cost and time of air­craft pro­duc­tion.”

Pete Wick, CEO of Qar­bon Aero­space, remarked, “We are extreme­ly excit­ed that Super­nal has select­ed our ther­mo­plas­tic weld­ing tech­nol­o­gy to enable the high-rate man­u­fac­tur­ing of their eVTOL vehi­cle struc­ture. Supernal’s delib­er­ate approach of care­ful­ly select­ing and inte­grat­ing rate-enabling tech­nol­o­gy from the start dif­fer­en­ti­ates their eVTOL vehi­cle in the AAM field.”

Fac­to­ry Floor at Qar­bon Aero­space

Supernal’s part­ner­ship with Qar­bon Aero­space is part of the company’s “open ecosys­tem” approach to address the niche tech­nol­o­gy needs of AAM. Super­nal aims to grow its port­fo­lio of man­u­fac­tur­ing part­ners across oth­er vehi­cle com­po­nents, in addi­tion to air­frame.

Super­nal and Qar­bon Aero­space held a col­lab­o­ra­tion sign­ing cer­e­mo­ny at the Paris Air Show today at the lat­ter’s booth.

For more infor­ma­tion

https://qarbonaerospace.com

https://supernal.aero

Onto GKN Aero­space.

Super­nal has announced a col­lab­o­ra­tion on the design and build of major aerostruc­tures and Elec­tri­cal Wiring Inter­con­nec­tion Sys­tem (EWIS) for its eVTOL.

The release states, “The com­pa­nies will also mature high-rate man­u­fac­tur­ing tech­nolo­gies to pro­duce these parts and assem­bly meth­ods. GKN is to work with Super­nal to apply its broad port­fo­lio of design capa­bil­i­ties and man­u­fac­tur­ing tech­nolo­gies to the devel­op­ment of the Company’s eVTOL vehi­cle.”

GKN Aero­space Fac­to­ry Floor

It goes on, “GKN will sup­ply light­weight aerostruc­tures and high-volt­age, high-pow­er elec­tri­cal wiring sys­tems for Supernal’s full-scale tech­nol­o­gy demon­stra­tor, which the Com­pa­ny will begin fly­ing in 2024. The part­ner­ship aims to improve the busi­ness case—and process—for intro­duc­ing advanced mate­ri­als and rate-enabling assem­bly process­es to the AAM indus­try. In work­ing with GKN to mature these inno­v­a­tive process­es from the out­set, Super­nal will devel­op vol­ume ramp-up capa­bil­i­ties that enable the Com­pa­ny to rapid­ly scale pro­duc­tion as air­craft order demand grows.”

Jai­won Shin, Pres­i­dent of Hyundai Motor Group and CEO of Super­nal, said, “Man­u­fac­tur­ing is cru­cial to the suc­cess of Advanced Air Mobil­i­ty and Super­nal, but instead of focus­ing on ‘time to mar­ket,’ Super­nal is pri­ori­tis­ing ‘time to scale.’” Adding, “Our work with GKN Aero­space will lay the foun­da­tion for pro­duc­ing eVTOL vehi­cles at scale and will be bol­stered by Hyundai Motor Group’s high-tech man­u­fac­tur­ing process­es.”

“As part of Hyundai Motor Group (HMG),” explains the release, “Super­nal is work­ing to inte­grate the auto­mo­tive leader’s exper­tise includ­ing sup­ply chain man­age­ment, logis­tics and dis­tri­b­u­tion and man­u­fac­tur­ing through­out the AAM ecosys­tem.”

It goes on, “In the man­u­fac­tur­ing realm, HMG is help­ing Super­nal to devel­op a scal­able dig­i­tal fac­to­ry mod­el that will indus­tri­alise aero­space mate­r­i­al and assem­bly advance­ments. Supernal’s work with lead­ing aero­space man­u­fac­tur­ers, such as GKN Aero­space, is an impor­tant first step toward the Company’s abil­i­ty to reduce the cost and time of air­craft pro­duc­tion.”

John Pritchard

John Pritchard, Civ­il Air­frames’ Pres­i­dent of GKN Aero­space, remarked, “Supernal’s eVTOL can play a key role in the tran­si­tion to zero-emis­sions flight, and we are delight­ed to be col­lab­o­rat­ing on the plat­form. We are proud to bring to this project its wealth of expe­ri­ence in design and high-rate man­u­fac­tur­ing, in con­junc­tion with key tech­no­log­i­cal inno­va­tions and exper­tise.”

GKN Aero­space is a glob­al leader in the design and man­u­fac­tur­ing of light­weight aerostruc­tures and EWIS, across glob­al orig­i­nal equip­ment man­u­fac­tur­ers (OEMs) and the grow­ing AAM mar­ket. Super­nal and GKN Aerospace’s design and man­u­fac­tur­ing activ­i­ties have begun at GKN Aerospace’s Glob­al Tech­nol­o­gy Cen­tre in Bris­tol and across sites in Europe.

Supernal’s part­ner­ship with GKN Aero­space is part of the Company’s “open ecosys­tem” approach to address the niche tech­nol­o­gy needs of AAM. The Com­pa­ny plans to grow its port­fo­lio of man­u­fac­tur­ing part­ners across oth­er vehi­cle com­po­nents and assem­blies in addi­tion to air­frame.

For more infor­ma­tion

https://www.gknaerospace.com

(Images: Super­nal, Qar­bon, GKN)