News: Quickstep opens new Sydney site | ADM August 2012

Quickstep Holdings formally marked its move from Perth to Sydney with the official opening on 22 June of its new composites facility in a former Hawker de Havilland Aerospace hangar at Bankstown airport.

The importance of the Quickstep operation to both Northrop Grumman and Lockheed Martin was emphasised by the presence of Gary Ervin, President of Northrop Grumman’s Aerospace Systems Division (who jointly opened the new plant with NSW Premier Barry O’Farrell) and Jonathan Rambeau, Lockheed Martin’s Vice-President of F-35 International Programs.

Quickstep is already manufacturing carbon fibre components for the Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighter under a long-term agreement (LTA) signed in February 2011 with Northrop Grumman, a major subcontractor to Lockheed Martin on the F-35 program.

A second LTA announced at the opening by Quickstep Managing Director Philippe Odouard will see the range of components extended to take in lower skin sides, maintenance access panels, fuel tank covers, and inboard bomb bay doors.

A third and final LTA under a Memorandum of Understanding that was signed with Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman in November 2009 is anticipated before the end of this year on successful conclusion of a qualification process that is currently under way.

Meanwhile discussions are understood to be taking place on Quickstep taking over from BAE Systems in the UK the assembly of JSF vertical tail units, the composite skin for which is produced by Quickstep and the structure by Marand Engineering in Melbourne. The completed units would be shipped direct to the US .

The 4,000 square metre Quickstep hangar has a lengthy aviation history, being used for flight testing of the Mosquito fighter bomber in World War II and then for the Vampire fighter, maintenance of the RAAF’s Caribou tactical transports, and assembly of the RAAF’s Pilatus PC -9 trainers.

Quickstep will shortly be taking over another nearby ex-Hawker de Havilland Aerospace hangar to implement its new contract as sole-source manufacturer of flaps for the Hercules C-130J.

About half of the current 50-strong Quickstep workforce is now in place in Sydney, with the balance expected by next January. But Odouard said the contracts the company has already secured represent more than 200 jobs “and we have a number of other prospects likely to increase that number significantly”.

Quickstep was very close to being cash flow positive and had all the contracts necessary to get there, he added.