Drone manufacturer Schiebel: a tour of Camcopter production in Wiener Neustadt

The Lower Austrian company Schiebel once owed its rise to mine detectors. Today it is regarded as one of the world’s leading drone manufacturers. A visit to the company’s site in Wiener Neustadt.

Wiener Neustadt, the cradle of aviation

Without exaggeration, Wiener Neustadt can be called the cradle of Austrian aviation. As early as 1906, the “k. u. k. Militäraeronautische Anstalt” (the Imperial and Royal Military Aeronautical Institute) settled on the heath between Wiener Neustadt and Wöllersdorf, its open ground then serving as a landing site for free balloons and airships. In 1909 the municipal council even decided to build an airfield and several aeroplane hangars “for the purpose of promoting mechanical aviation”, a visionary plan, since motorised aircraft did not yet exist at that time.

Hannes Hecher, CEO of the Austrian drone manufacturer Schiebel, likes this story and smiles. “No visions, no goals, and no goals, no development,” he says. He then talks about another vision that took hold in Wiener Neustadt: how the town of 50,000 inhabitants also became the cradle of Austrian and European drone aviation, and how three decades ago the foundation was laid there for one of today’s most sought-after drone models worldwide.

In the mid to late 1990s, hardly anyone believed in unmanned fixed-wing and rotary-wing aircraft. Schiebel, by contrast, recognised the potential. Founded in Vienna back in 1951, the company had just become world market leader in high-tech mine detectors, not least thanks to a major US Army contract; around ten per cent of revenue still comes from this business. At the same time, some employees were working on concepts for an unmanned helicopter. First models emerged, some approaches and ideas were discarded, others developed further; the prototypes were initially powered by a chainsaw engine. “The end justified the means,” says Hannes Hecher.

163 carbon fibre layers for one component

Some of these early models now hang from the ceiling of the production hall as a reminder. Below them, of course, things are far more high-tech than back then. In the end there must be exactly 163 layers: 164 are too many, 162 too few. These 163 carbon fibre layers of varying width and length are laid on top of each other with millimetre precision, vacuum-packed and then cured for hours in an autoclave at different temperature stages. It sounds complex, and it is, yet the finished component is only one part of the landing gear of a Camcopter S-100.

Camcopter is the name of Schiebel’s premium product. Hannes Hecher prefers to call it a “workhorse”, and the performance data prove him absolutely right: a good three metres long, just over a metre high and with a rotor diameter of 3.4 metres, the rotorcraft reaches a maximum take-off weight of a hefty 200 kilograms, almost twice its own weight. On every flight, the operator has 90 kilograms for fuel, sensors, cameras and other equipment. “That is real added value for customers, and in this class someone would have to match it first,” says Hecher.

This enormous payload is made possible by consistent lightweight design at every level and numerous in-house developments that have been steadily improved and refined over the years. On the tour of Schiebel’s production, Hecher explains: “We started using 3D printers very early on, and we also design the engine and gearbox ourselves.” On average, the company invests 20 per cent of revenue in research and development every year, currently even 30 per cent. “Nothing here is ‘off the shelf’, and even if a Camcopter of today looks like a Camcopter from five or ten years ago, technologically it is a completely different system.”

“even if a Camcopter Of today looks like a camcopter from five or from ten years ago, technologically it is a new system.”
Schiebel CEO Hannes Hecher

Where drone manufacturer Schiebel is in service

At the centre of all these efforts is the greatest possible customer benefit, which is already valued worldwide. The S-100 is used by police and border surveillance authorities, coast guards and armed forces, but also by civil authorities such as the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA), each with its own priorities and objectives. For EMSA, for example, Schiebel monitors ship emissions in the North Sea and the English Channel. With the Spanish coast guard SASEMAR, Camcopters help expand search and rescue (SAR) capabilities, working with sensors on manned helicopters and aircraft as well as ships. In the defence sector, contracts in recent years have come from Thailand and Australia, among others. In addition, Camcopters with powerful sensors protect ships of the British Royal Navy in the “Peregrine” project, operated together with Thales.

Back in production, the tour moves on to the warehouse: tall shelves are stacked with carbon fibre tanks, circuit boards, gearboxes and front and tail sections. In the room next door, an employee is putting the finishing touches to a carbon fibre component: deburring, sanding, smoothing and drilling holes for screws and rivets. Adding up all the assembly steps, a Camcopter is fully assembled in just one week. Individual components such as the titanium rotor shaft, however, have lead times of around a year. Production planning therefore requires a great deal of foresight so that every component is available as soon as it is needed.

Schiebel has also already announced a big brother to the Camcopter: the S-300, with even more payload volume, many further improvements and new capabilities. The South Korean Navy is already confirmed as a first customer. Wiener Neustadt is not revealing much more for now, only this: “We are on a good path,” says Hannes Hecher. “Now we have to follow this path successfully, and then we will be happy to share further details.”