Aero Engineers Australia

AEA was established by Graham Swannell in Perth in 1978 in order fill the gap in airworthiness people authorised to approve the design of modifications and repairs in Western Australia. Originally starting with a few desks in a part-owned hangar at Jandakot Airport, the practice grew and moved to its current location at 1 Eagle Drive in 1990. In 1995, the company established its second office at Parafield Airport in Adelaide to widen its client base and better serve existing customers in the Adelaide region. In 2000, AEA joined with HSJ aviation and founded its third office at Sydney's Bankstown Airport. The company has since gone on to establish offices at Brisbane and Melbourne.

In 2003, a Cessna 404 crashed at Jandakot Airport. On investigation, the Australian Transport Safety Bureau found a replacement bush used in one of the engine fuel pumps and approved by AEA had seized, causing the engine to fail shortly after takeoff. The pilot chose to turn the plane around to attempt a landing at the airport. However the plane’s speed fell below the best airspeed and it crashed in bushland. The pilot's quick actions saved the lives of three passengers. The families and employer of the victims are suing the Civil Aviation Safety Authority though AEA, as many of the other companies involved have since ceased trading.

In 2010 AEA was bought by the Nova Defence Group to expand Nova's business into the commercial sector.

Services

AEA provides a variety of services to the general aviation industry, including the design and certification of aircraft modifications, repairs and testing of aircraft components, aircraft weight control (aircraft reweighs, trimsheets and loading systems) in accordance with Civil Aviation Order 100.7 (CAO 100.7), design and manufacture of aircraft components (such as cargo nets, replacement parts, survey installations, equipment frames, skis, etc.) under a Production Certificate and Civil Aviation Safety Regulation Part 21 (CASR 21), flammability testing to FAR/JAR25.853 and similar provisions, systems integration, flight and performance testing, aircraft design, aeronautical consultancy, civil/military platform design etc.

Additionally Airline Technical Services was established as a wholly owned subsidiary of AEA to provide speciality services to the airline sector, and Swannell Racing now provides roll cage homologation services to the local racing industry.

Aircraft designs

Since the 1980s, AEA has also been involved in the design of a number of whole aircraft projects including the Eagle 150B and the Explorer.

The Explorer is a high-performance but rugged utility aircraft that can perform a wide variety of roles at a lower cost than other equivalent aircraft. It was developed to cope with the harsh Australian conditions and unprepared dirt strips but still deliver a 180 kn cruise, almost 1000 nmi range and economical performance. The aircraft utilises the latest in aerofoil design, a carbon fibre fuselage shell, a unique retractable undercarriage, flat cabin floor, and a newly devised construction method that minimises construction and assembly time. The aircraft was initially developed as the 350R but now incorporates the 500T turbine variant and the stretched 750T.