Mahindra Aerospace Pvt Ltd, which is to start work on the $60-million aero-structure production business, plans to step up investments, according to Mr Arvind Mehra, Executive Director and CEO.

“There are plans to go beyond what we thought of initially,” he told newspersons in Chennai recently. Work on the aero-structure – aircraft frame components – production facility is to start in a matter of days and the plant will be up in a little over a year.

The Mahindra & Mahindra group company will subsequently get into production of aero assemblies and composites-based aero-structure after starting with metal components.

While declining to give details of the enhanced investments, he said Mahindra Aerospace will establish a comprehensive presence in the 5- to 20-seater aircraft segment from production to distribution. This is a $5-billion market growing 15 per cent a year with over 4,000 aircraft in use globally.

The group's acquisitions of Aerostaff Australia, a manufacturer of aircraft parts, and Gippsland Aeronautics, a reputed Australian manufacturer of small aeroplanes, gives Mahindra Aerospace access to the utility segment that caters to ‘carrying people and cargo to hard-to-reach places,' he said.

Mahindra Aerospace will bring in the finance and the marketing strength to give the companies an international presence. Apart from its own distribution channels, it will partner with others to set up presence in a number of countries including the US and India.

In addition to the existing lines of 2- and 8-seaters with Gippsland, Mahindra Aerospace will expand the portfolio with 5-, 10- and 18-seaters. The prototypes of a 5-seater aircraft under development jointly with NAL are being built in Bangalore by NAL and Gippsland Aeronautics in Australia, will soon be flying, he said.

Mr Mehra who was in Chennai to deliver the Dr K.C.G. Verghese Memorial Lecture organised by the Hindustan Group of institutions in memory of its founder, said that a number of companies including the Chennai-based Orient Flight School, a part f the Hindustan institutions group, have evinced a keen interest in participating with Mahindra Aerospace's distribution network, he said.

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