Suter/CAE have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Pinnacle Aircraft Engines (PAE) to provide USA overhaul services on Suter’s TOA288 UAV engine. Suter’s TOA288 engine is flying on the Shield.AI V-Bat 128 and Volansi’s Voly 20 and Voly 50 VTOL solutions.
Suter selected PAE after an exhaustive search of potential overhaul service providers in the USA. The goal of the Suter/CAE/PAE agreement is to be able to provide its customers first class service and overhauls of fielded Suter engines in the US market. There is potential to expand this agreement in the future to also include USA production of Suter UAV engines.
PAE was founded in 2010 by long-time Continental Motors and aircraft engine leaders to provide overhaul services of Continental Motors and Lycoming engines to individual aircraft owners and large fleet operators such as Airlines, Flight Training Centers, OEM Service Centers and Aftermarket Distributors. PAE is a Part 145, FAA approved repair facility and continuously meets or exceeds the tightly regulated Type 145 requirements with on-going training, quality control, testing, and documentation standards.
Suter TOA288
Lars Jaeger, Director of Sales & Marketing at Suter said,
“We are excited to be working with Pinnacle Aircraft Engines to provide local USA overhaul of our world class UAV engines by an FAA Part 145 approved repair facility.” Lars went on to say, “When looking for overhaul facilities, PAE had the best facility, personnel and reputation in the overhaul of Continental/Lycoming manned aircraft engines while also having significant 2-stroke engine knowledge/experience.”
“We see a tremendous opportunity in expanding our aircraft engine repair business to include the unmanned aircraft engine overhaul market,” said JD Kuti CEO/partner of PAE. “We are excited to be working exclusively with Suter Industries to overhaul their advanced UAV engines to support US customers.”
Suter will train PAE and provide the parts and automated test stand for PAE to overhaul engines in the USA. PAE is targeting to be approved to start providing overhaul services in 2023.
About Suter Industries:
Suter Industries’ roots go back to motorcycle racing era of the 1990s. Eskil Suter was a successful Grand Prix racing driver and founded the Suter Racing company in 1996. The company is known for their “SuterClutch” and other products for the motorcycle racing market including high-performance engines, motorcycles and various components. In 2015, Suter Racing launched a four-cylinder two-stroke racing machine with the worldwide exclusive Suter500, which was developed completely in-house. Since 2002 Suter Industries applied the expertise gained from engine development to other areas of relevance in vehicle, aviation and defense industries.
About Pinnacle Aircraft Engines:
Pinnacle Aircraft Engines is a Part 145, FAA approved repair facility founded in 2010 by long-time Continental Motors and aircraft engine leaders. Pinnacle provides overhaul services of Continental Motors and Lycoming engines to individual aircraft owners and large fleet operators such as Airlines, Flight Training Centers, OEM Service Centers and Aftermarket Distributors.
About CAE GmbH:
CAE GmbH is lead by Dietrich Kehe who is a mechanical engineer with over 24 years’ experience in manned and unmanned 2-stroke aircraft engines. He received his engineering degree with a focus on combustion engines from the University of Hochschule für Technik – Esslingen (Stuttgart, Germany area). Dietrich has developed clean sheet engine designs for advanced UAV applications utilizing advanced electronic fuel injection (including direct injection) technology. These solutions are flying on some of the world’s most advanced UAV applications. CAE GmbH has teamed with Suter to develop world class UAV engines for the global market.
About UAV Propulsion Tech:
Schmidt Products, LLC (dba UAV Propulsion Tech) is a privately held US company that markets global UAV technology into the defense and commercial UAV markets, and is the US representative for Suter Industries.
Source: Press Release