Type Certifying Airlander

Globally certified to the same standard as large commercial aeroplanes, the safety and quality of Airlander are our priority. Certifying through the UK CAA, we will also concurrently apply for Certification with regulatory bodies around the world ready for global service from 2028.

Find out more about the full Type Certification process

Certifying Airlander

Working with the regulators

We work closely with regulators and authorities to ensure Airlander and its operations will comply with global policies and regulations.

Our Office of Airworthiness oversees the Type Certification of Airlander. The team has years of experience in roles both in the aerospace industry and regulators, helping give regulators confidence in our process and the decisions we make on the pathway to Type Certification.

There are two important organisational steps before a manufacturer can design and build a new aircraft type: a Design Organisation Approval (DOA) and a Production Organisation Approval (POA). Airlander’s certification process is already well underway. Below, we detail our DOA and POA teams.

Design Organisation Approval

A DOA from the regulators is required to show that an organisation is approved to design aircraft. We were awarded our DOA in 2018.

Meet our DOA Team

Mike Durham – Chief Technical Officer As the CTO, Mike is the Head of the Design Organisation. This means he is responsible for ensuring all design work on the aircraft is carried out to the highest standards. Mike has over 30 years' experience developing lighter-than-air technologies.
Andrew Barber - Head of the Office of Airworthiness Andrew is responsible for knowing, understanding, and implementing the regulations that govern both the design organisation and the aircraft design. Andrew leads on the work to define our Type Certification Basis. He is also the main point of contact for Air Operations, Flight Crew Licensing and Flight Time Limitations requirements, working with global regulators to develop rules for the safe and legal operation of hybrid aircraft for commercial air transport. Andrew has many years’ experience in air and land vehicle design and test.
Nikky Pitkin - Airworthiness Engineer Nikky looks after our DOA handbook (the procedural manual that defines how the design organisation is built and run to meet its legal obligations) and the associated procedures. She also runs our document management system and is one of the key people working on the vital task of configuration control of the aircraft design. Nikky also runs various important design organisation records systems connected with the training and authorisation of the design and test engineers. Nikky has an engineering degree plus many years’ experience in aviation and other engineering sectors.
Carl Thomas – Head of Independent Systems Monitoring As Head of Independent Systems Monitoring, Carl must independently monitor that the design organisation is complying with all of its procedures. Having previously worked as the Head of Airworthiness, Carl’s independent monitoring leads to further improvements and enhancements to our Type Certification process. Carl was previously the General Aviation Section Manager at the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) working on the certification of a wide range of aircraft and is well placed to be an independent monitor of quality.

Production Organisation Approval

A POA means the organisation is approved to manufacture the aircraft and is a fundamental requirement for all commercial aircraft manufacturers.

Meet our POA Team

Nick Allman – Chief Operating Officer Nick is the Accountable Manager and is ultimately responsible for overall compliance with the POA requirements. He ensures that activities undertaken under the authority of the POA have the necessary finance, staff, resources, and facilities available to complete the work in compliance with the appropriate design data. Nick has worked in the aerospace industry since graduating. Starting in British Aerospace Future Projects, he has held managerial positions in Raytheon Aircraft, GKN Aerospace, and Raytheon Systems.
James Bell – Programme Director James has overall responsibility for the successful delivery of programmes at HAV and is also the Head of the Supply Chain. He is supported by purchasing staff to manage relationships with our suppliers and he facilitates quality oversight. James has 20 years of experience in the aerospace industry in both engineering and project management. He has worked on civil and military aircraft projects from large structural modifications and repairs to aircraft interiors, avionics and mission system upgrades, fuel tanks and mechanical systems.
Stuart Harrison – Senior Quality Engineer Stuart is responsible to the Accountable Manager for quality assurance within the production department, including the production quality assurance systems. He ensures that processes needed for quality management principles are established, implemented, and maintained, and resolves quality matters independent of the organisation. Stuart is also a trained lead auditor. His experience comes from a mechanical background in both the Royal Air Force and civilian aviation.
Ivor Pope – Production Manager Ivor is responsible to the Accountable Manager for ensuring that products manufactured within the scope of the Production Organisation Exposition conform with the appropriate design data from our Design Organisation. He ensures that all production work is within the capability and scope of approval of the POA, that facilities are appropriate for production activities, and that production personnel are trained and competent to carry out the work under the POE. Ivor gained his experience in the Royal Air Force as an avionic/electrical technician.

Maintaining our DOA and POA

We use a digital quality management system to manage the quality requirements of both the DOA and POA. From audits conducted by the audit team to queries that may arise, we feed the data into the system and it allows us to track, collaborate, progress, and complete any actions. This feeds our continuous improvement and safety management culture.

We conduct internal audits of our processes and procedures and are audited each year by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), our regulator. This ensures we are compliant with both the CAA regulations and our internal documentation. We recently successfully completed audits with the CAA of both the Design Organisation and the Production Organisation.

Following Brexit, we are now regulated by the CAA in the same way as originally conducted under EASA.

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