It is with heavy hearts that we share the news of the unexpected passing of, Dr Paul Potgieter, founder of Aerosud, a South African aerospace engineering and manufacturing company.

South Africa’s aerospace community has lost a giant with the death of Dr Paul Potgieter in a motor vehicle accident, writes Linden Burns, Managing Director of Plane Talking.

Paul was the father of the Rooivalk helicopter programme and after leaving Atlas (now Denel), he established Aerosud as a pioneering, private-sector aerostructures engineering firm.

At the time, South Africa was still subject to international sanctions and Aerosud occupied a modest facility at Grand Central Airport in Midrand. One of its first challenging projects was to successfully modify the Mirage F1 and Cheetah D aircraft to accommodate the Klimov engine used in Russia’s MiG-29 fighters. Within months of the first proving flights, sanctions were lifted and the project was shut down.

Dr Paul Potgieter

Paul saw the opportunity and grabbed it, becoming one of the first private-sector South African aerospace leaders and innovators to forge industrial ties with UK & EU (Airbus, GKN, BAE Systems) and US (Boeing, Spirit). Our paths crossed several times from the early 1990s, initially when I was a journalist covering the industry. When I started working as Airbus’s PR advisor, Paul badgered me into facilitating an introduction to Airbus so he could present Aerosud’s alternative lower-deck cabin crew rest pod solution for Airbus’s A330 and A340 widebody jetliners.

It took a few years for the two companies to get to know each other and for Airbus to place its confidence in Aerosud. The relationship helped transform Aerosud. It became an exclusive supplier of components and sub-structures to Airbus and Boeing. In doing so, Aerosud has been able to establish and support its own supplier network, which includes niche firms such as Daliff Engineering in Cape Town.

In recent years Paul and his son, Paul Potgieter Jnr. drove the AHRLAC project (an advanced high-performance two-seater reconnaissance light aircraft). But a falling out between Aerosud and its then shareholder, Paramount, saw the latter take over the programme.

Paul was devoted to the industry in South Africa, its growth and nurturing young talent to fill a pipeline of skilled people for South Africa’s high-tech industry.

He was a founder of the Aerospace, Maritime & Defence body and a key supporter of the Commercial Aerospace Manufacturers Assoc of SA. He conceived the Centurion Aerospace Village as a SEZ for the local aerospace cluster, (which is still to realise its potential).

Paul was an early adopter of carbon composites, thermo-plastics and novel metallics for aerospace components. In 2011 he persuaded the CSIR and the National Laser Centre to launch the “Aeroswift” project, to develop and commercialise scaled-up 3D printing of large aircraft parts using titanium powder, which aligned with SA’s minerals beneficiation policy.

Paul was always generous and patient when explaining technologies, processes, the industry and its dynamic with government.

R.I.P. Dr Paul Potgieter, sympathies to his loved ones, friends and colleagues.