Electric aviation startup to complete MVP build this month (podcast)

Dovetail Electric Aviation began in 2021 and is chasing a market estimated at $US 15 billion for retrofitting electric propulsion systems onto small airplanes. Brent Balinski spoke to co-founder Rachael Barritt about their story so far.

A bit over two years ago, this website reported with sadness that MagniX – an Australian-born world-leader in electric aviation – had severed its ties with this nation, closing a Gold Coast R&D centre as it consolidated operations due to the pandemic.

Thankfully, other innovators – such as AMSL, Kite Magnetics and Dovetail Electric Aviation – have emerged offering hope that locally-grown contributions of relevance can be made to the emerging emissions-free air travel industry.

“Our short-term goal right now is the prototype, so spinning that propeller by the end of the month,” Rachael Barritt, Business Operations Manager and co-founder at Dovetail Electric Aviation, tells us. 

“From there, a year from now, we want to have the first flight of the battery-powered aircraft. That will be working with Sydney Seaplanes.

“And shortly following that is our first hydrogen flight, which will be a King aircraft, and then within three years… certifying our first product.”

Barritt’s company – which she co-founded with former Quickstep CTO and founder of Dante Aeronautical David Doral, and Sydney Aviation Holdings CEO, Aaron Shaw – got started in 2021. 

It is developing electric propulsion systems to retrofit to turboprop aircraft, first in Australia after gaining supplemental type certification, and then aiming to expand into Europe, Singapore, and possibly beyond.

It sees a $US 15 billion opportunity in an estimated 11,000 nine-to-19-seat aircraft in service.

Dovetail is ambitious and has a decent amount to do with MagniX. It is the exclusive distributor in ANZ, the South Pacific and Mediterranean Europe of their electric motors, and is using them in its own drive trains.   

Doral and Barritt

Barritt worked for MagniX from 2019 until the closure of its Australian site. She linked up with Shaw and Doral after a recommendation by Roei Ganzarski, MagniX’s former CEO and a current member of Dovetail’s board.

The year has apparently started strongly for the startup, which was awarded a $3 million CRC-P grant last month. Last week Barritt was named Swinburne University’s first Founder in Residence for 2023. And by the end of this month, her team plans to have built and operated a minimum viable product.

In this episode of @AuManufacturing Conversations with Brent Balinski, Barritt tells us about her career in e-aviation manufacturing, the path to certification and commercialisation, the Founder In Residence role, and more.

Episode guide

0:50 – introduction to Barritt and her career path.

3:05 – Joining the e-propulsion leader MagniX, which formerly had a site on the Gold Coast, in 2019.

5:30 – Dovetail’s origins and co-founding the company with David Doral and Aaron Shaw.

6:48 – A small team of fewer than ten. “Basically everybody except myself is a qualified engineer.”

7:32 – Challenges involved in what they are doing at this moment. What’s being done inhouse and what’s being bought off the shelf.

8:50 – What does a Founder in Residence do? 

10:50 – The path to certification.  

12:40 – The good thing about getting certification in Australia, and the benefit of their relationship with MagniX in this.

14:20 – Longer-term goals after entering the retrofit market.

15:45 – Green hydrogen is very expensive. How can this be changed so it makes sense for aviation users?

17:10 – What does government need to do to drive nil emissions aviation? 

18:10 – If Australia runs out of fuel tomorrow, we will have no way of powering our air fleet.

19:50 – Final words.

Further reading

THE ONE THAT QUIETLY GOT AWAY?

SWINBURNE UNIVERSITY’S FIRST FOUNDER IN RESIDENCE WILL FOCUS ON AEROSPACE R&D

MONASH SPINOUT BELIEVES IT HAS CORE INGREDIENT FOR ELECTRIC AVIATION REVOLUTION

19 COMPANIES SUPPORTED IN CRC-P GRANTS

Pictures: supplied