The future Rolls-Royce factory is an intellectual challenge for us, but we have all the tools to solve it

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Zoltán Koltai, Global Head of Manufacturing, Rolls-Royce Electrical, joined the company in May 2017. He holds a Master's degree in Mechanical Engineering from Szent István University and he has been flying since he was 15 years old initially with gliders and more recently powered aircraft as a pilot, and was an active flight instructor for almost two decades. In manufacturing, he and his around 50 colleagues globally are currently working on how to acquire technologies for the Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) market and what the future Rolls-Royce factory will look like.

How do you envisage Rolls-Royce Electrical's strategy for mass production and sustainable manufacturing?

In the early days of sustainable aviation, our work was focused on demonstrator projects to prove that all-electric and hybrid-electric systems had a place in the aviation industry and could be operated safely. In the current phase, we are gradually shifting from the R&D environment of engineering technologies to product certification and mass production, and of course the development of this comprehensive strategy. Perhaps one of the biggest challenges in the field of electric aviation is that we will have to work with volumes typical of the premium automotive industry, based on market forecasts. This means orders of higher volumes of thousands to tens of thousands of units per year compared to the classical aviation industry, as the nature of their use (low passenger numbers, short to medium range) means that components and systems are much smaller and therefore cheaper. It would therefore be obvious to base the production strategy on the production technology and logistics of the automotive industry, but the aviation industry is subject to extremely high safety standards. We are currently combining the speed and momentum of the automotive industry with the safety standards and rigorous requirements of the aviation industry to develop a production technology that is unprecedented.

Where is Rolls-Royce now in its promise that its all-electric and hybrid-electric systems will be used as regularly operated aircrafts in the Advanced Air Moblity market within this decade?

Developments are already underway that focus not only on products, but also on manufacturing technology and certifications, so it is a realistic goal to have scheduled flights within this decade powered by our systems.

At the moment, we are not only setting requirements for the design team and the manufacturing engineers, such as the power, speed and weight of an electric motor - with the highest safety standards, of course - but we are also discussing how much a particular motor should cost, or how many variations of it should be produced on the same production line. Collaboration and integrated thinking at this early stage of the design process is crucial. We are looking for the most optimal solution, as it only takes a small change to a component to create a new production part or a new production process. It is therefore a simultaneous engineering activity, where the manufacturing engineer, the design engineer, the safety engineer and many other experts work together in an integrated engineering system.

We have a great advantage because at Rolls-Royce we have an incredible over 100 years of knowledge and history of how to design the manufacturing technology and what the process is. In this system, we think about product development and production in parallel, we assign to each level of technological readiness the tasks necessary to prepare for production.

Another huge advantage is that we have access to the technological knowledge we need to simulate processes. So, we already know how the factory will look like, in which we will manufacture power and propulsion systems for aircrafts of the Advanced Air Mobility market. We can also use digital technology to simulate how changes to the product will affect the production line and the design of the factory. Digital twins and 3D modelling will show where there could be possible disruptions, inefficient production, raw material placement, assembly, or even what parameters (speed, temperature) should be used for production. We can run an infinite number of these simulations, and with the help of artificial intelligence, we can optimise them.

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But how can a manufacturing strategy be sustainable?

There are many aspects to sustainable manufacturing, such as the sourcing of components and raw materials.

It may be cheaper to source from a distant country if we burn fuel in shipping by sea, or it may be slightly more expensive, but the carbon footprint can be significantly reduced by sourcing parts or raw materials locally, close to the production site.

Another aspect is that when we design a component, we should manufacture it in a way to minimise the use of materials as possible. We have long used the support of 3D printers and digital twins for this. There are also more traditional technologies, such as high-pressure, high-speed casting, or other technologies where we also aim to waste a minimum amount of material by cutting. We do a lot of research in this area, partly involving research institutes and universities.

And while we are manufacturing, we are doing it in a building where the whole operation is designed from the very beginning to use as many renewable resources as possible, to minimise the use of drinking water with water recycling systems, or even to minimise the amount of auxiliary materials. Of course, this also applies to the partners we work with. In this way, we are contributing to making Rolls-Royce net zero by 2030. This is an ambitious target, but we have already achieved the half of the pathway.

How do you see the future of Advanced Air Mobility?

Electric and hybrid-electric technology, while still being under development in many areas, are close to be ready, with hundreds of hours of proven flight tests, so there is no question that these engineering innovations can be safely applied in aviation.

The next step is to get the engineering technology we develop certified. Once these vehicles start to fly across the urban sky, connecting now isolated regions, there will be a very dramatic demand for these solutions.

Advanced Air Mobility will complement current air transport, not take passengers away from it. It will be more practical to get into an air taxi instead of a car, to get to airports, to transport patients from a densely populated area where noise pollution is a critical issue. But it can also provide a great alternative for short-haul business trips, connecting regions to air transport that are currently only accessible by car, or with public transportation with several transfers. It will open up new horizons that now seem very futuristic but will become a reality within this decade.