How Qdot Is Helping Mira Aerospace Build an Aerospace-Grade AS9100 Integrated Management System for HAPS Manufacturing

Mira Aerospace builds aircraft that stay airborne for months, not hours. Its solar-powered High-Altitude Pseudo-Satellite (HAPS) platforms operate in the stratosphere — above weather, above conventional air traffic — delivering persistent earth observation, environmental and weather monitoring, and communications coverage at a fraction of the cost of a conventional satellite programme.

That mission sets an unusually high bar for a management system. There is no maintenance window in the stratosphere, no service call, no second chance on a bonded joint. Qdot was engaged to develop and implement an integrated management system covering AS9100 (Aerospace Quality Management), ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and ISO 45001 — built as one system, not four, and built to be lived on the shop floor before anyone books a certification audit.

That last point is the defining feature of this engagement. Mira Aerospace made a deliberate decision: implementation first, certification second. The system goes into daily operation, matures through internal audit and management review, and only then goes forward for certification. This case study covers that programme, which is currently in the implementation phase.

About Mira Aerospace

Mira Aerospace is an Abu Dhabi-based aerospace manufacturer developing High-Altitude Pseudo-Satellite platforms — solar-powered, wide-span unmanned aircraft designed to loiter in the stratosphere for extended periods, in some configurations approaching six months of continuous flight. The company is a joint venture between Bayanat (part of Space42) and UAVOS Inc., combining AI-powered geospatial intelligence with deep unmanned systems engineering.

The commercial logic is compelling. A conventional earth-observation or weather-monitoring satellite is a multi-year, capital-intensive programme: build, launch, and hope. A HAPS platform can be deployed within hours, repositioned on demand, recovered, upgraded and re-flown. For weather forecasting, environmental monitoring, disaster response, border surveillance, mapping and communications relay, it offers much of the persistence of a satellite at a fraction of the cost — and with none of the launch risk.

Delivering that promise depends on extreme engineering discipline. The airframe is a large-span, ultra-lightweight composite structure operating at temperatures approaching −70°C in rarefied air, powered entirely by solar energy and stored battery capacity. Every gram matters. Every bonded joint matters. Every process — layup, cure, bond, test — has to be right the first time, because once the aircraft climbs it will not be touched again for months.

The Challenge: Aerospace-Grade Quality in a Young, Fast-Moving Manufacturer

When Mira Aerospace engaged Qdot, the engineering capability was already world-class. What the company needed was the management system architecture that turns world-class engineering into a repeatable, auditable, customer-defensible industrial process. Four pressures converged.

1. AS9100 is a customer entry requirement, not a nice-to-have

In aerospace, AS9100 is the price of admission. Defence primes, government programmes, tier-one integrators and international partners require it as a baseline supplier qualification. For a company selling into national programmes and export markets, the absence of AS9100 is a closed door — regardless of how good the aircraft is.

2. AS9100 goes far beyond ISO 9001

AS9100 is built on the ISO 9001 framework, but layers on requirements that are unfamiliar to most general manufacturers: configuration management, product safety, counterfeit parts prevention, control of critical items and key characteristics, special process control, First Article Inspection, production process verification, foreign object debris (FOD) prevention, operational-level risk management, human factors in root cause analysis, and on-time delivery and quality performance monitoring against customer targets. These are not documentation exercises — they are shop-floor disciplines that must be designed into how the aircraft is actually built.

3. Environmental and safety risk in composites manufacturing is significant

Ultra-lightweight airframes mean carbon fibre, epoxy systems, structural adhesives, foam cores, solvents and curing operations — with the associated respirable dust, skin and respiratory sensitisers, VOC emissions and hazardous waste streams. Add high-capacity lithium battery assembly, storage and testing, large-span component handling, work at height during wing assembly, and flight-line and ground-test operations. ISO 14001 and ISO 45001 are not compliance decoration in this environment; they are operational necessities.

4. Four standards, one company, limited administrative overhead

Mira Aerospace is an engineering-led organisation. Running four parallel management systems — four sets of documents, four internal audit cycles, four management reviews — would have buried the team in administration and delivered nothing to the aircraft. The system had to be integrated from day one.

Underlying all of it, one decision from Mira's leadership shaped the entire programme: they did not want a certificate on the wall ahead of a working system. The instruction to Qdot was to build the system properly, embed it in operations, prove it through internal audit — and move to certification only when the system is genuinely mature.

Why Mira Aerospace Chose Qdot

• Pure consultancy, with no commercial ties to any certification body. Qdot does not sell certification and takes no referral commission. In an AS9100 context — where certification body competence and aerospace scheme listing genuinely determine whether a certificate is worth anything — that independence has direct commercial value to the client.
• Multi-standard, integration-first competence. Qdot consultants work across ISO 9001, ISO 14001, ISO 45001 and sector-specific quality schemes, and design integrated management systems as a default rather than as an afterthought.
• Implementation, not just documentation. Qdot's model is on-site support, training and process embedding — precisely what an organisation pursuing implementation-before-certification requires from a consultancy partner.
• ISO 20700 certified consultancy. Qdot is certified to ISO 20700:2017, the international standard for management consultancy services — meaning the consultancy process itself is governed by an audited management system.
• A performance guarantee. Qdot's standing commitment: if the agreed outcome is not delivered, the fee is returned.

The Qdot Approach: One System, Four Standards, Built to Be Operated

Phase 1 — Gap Assessment and System Architecture

Qdot conducted a full gap assessment against AS9100, ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and ISO 45001 simultaneously, mapping Mira's existing engineering, production and support processes against the combined requirement set.

The critical output was not the gap list — it was the architecture decision: a single documentation backbone, a single risk framework, a single internal audit programme, a single management review, and a single corrective action process, with standard-specific requirements layered in rather than bolted on. One system that answers to four standards.

Phase 2 — AS9100 Aerospace-Specific Process Design

This is where the engagement diverges sharply from a conventional IMS project. Qdot worked with Mira's engineering and production teams to design and implement the aerospace-specific controls that AS9100 demands, including:

• Configuration management — baseline definition, change control and traceability across design, build and flight standard.
• Product safety — formal identification and management of safety-critical characteristics across the product lifecycle.
• Counterfeit parts prevention — supplier controls, approved procurement routes and verification for electronic components and raw materials.
• Critical items and key characteristics — identification, control and monitoring of the features that determine airworthiness.
• Special process control — composite layup, cure, bonding, non-destructive testing and surface treatment operations qualified, controlled and monitored.
• First Article Inspection — a structured FAI regime for new and changed parts.
• Foreign Object Debris (FOD) prevention — controls across production, assembly and flight-line areas.
• Operational risk management and human factors — risk and opportunity management at process level, with human factors integrated into root cause analysis.

Phase 3 — Environmental and Occupational Health & Safety Integration

Environmental aspect and impact assessment, and OH&S hazard identification and risk assessment, were conducted across the composites, assembly, battery, test and flight-line areas — then integrated into the same operational control framework already carrying the AS9100 requirements. Chemical management, waste streams, emissions, energy use, lithium battery safety, thermal and pressure hazards, manual handling, work at height and emergency preparedness were addressed within one set of controls, not three.

Phase 4 — Training, Internal Audit and System Maturity (current phase)

Awareness training across the organisation, internal auditor training for the nominated team, the internal audit cycle across all four standards, and management review — this is the phase that converts documents into a working system, and it is the phase Mira Aerospace deliberately chose not to rush. Work is ongoing.

Phase 5 — Certification Readiness and Certification (upcoming)

Certification body selection is a specific technical decision in aerospace, and one that is frequently misunderstood. AS9100 cannot be certified by just any certification body: it operates under the IAQG ICOP scheme, which requires an accredited aerospace certification body with authenticated aerospace auditors, with the resulting certificate published in the OASIS database. A certificate issued outside that scheme carries no weight with aerospace customers. Qdot's role at this stage is to guide Mira Aerospace to a properly listed certification body and to prepare the organisation for Stage 1 and Stage 2 audit.

Progress to Date

1. A single integrated management system covering four standards.
One documentation backbone, one risk framework, one audit programme and one management review — covering aerospace quality, quality, environment and occupational health and safety.

2. Aerospace-specific disciplines embedded in production.
Configuration management, FOD control, special process qualification, counterfeit part prevention and First Article Inspection are being operated as production disciplines, not as paperwork.

3. Composites, chemical and lithium battery risk brought into a formal framework.
Environmental aspects and occupational health and safety hazards across the highest-risk operations are identified, assessed and controlled within the integrated system.

4. Internal audit and management review capability built in-house.
Mira Aerospace has its own trained internal audit team. The system is maintained by the organisation, not by the consultant — which is the only way a management system survives its first surveillance audit.

5. A certification-ready platform, on the client's timeline.
When Mira Aerospace proceeds to certification, it will do so with a system that has already been operated, audited and improved. That is the shortest and lowest-risk path to a clean Stage 2 audit.

In Mira Aerospace's Words

A Standout Moment

The hardest part of this programme was not writing the AS9100 procedures. It was the collision between an aerospace configuration management discipline and an engineering culture built on rapid iteration.

HAPS is a young technology. Mira's engineers iterate — and that is the source of the company's advantage. Configuration management, done badly, is precisely the kind of bureaucracy that kills iteration speed. The task was to design a configuration and change control regime rigorous enough to satisfy an aerospace auditor and a defence customer, yet light enough that engineering could still move.

The resolution was to control what actually determines airworthiness — critical items, key characteristics, flight-standard baselines — with full rigour, and to keep development iteration outside the flight-standard baseline until it is formally introduced through change control. The system protects the aircraft without slowing the engineers. That distinction is invisible in a procedure document and decisive on the shop floor.

What's Next

Mira Aerospace continues to operate and mature the integrated management system through internal audit and management review. Certification body selection and Stage 1 / Stage 2 audit preparation follow, with Qdot supporting the organisation through the certification process and into the surveillance cycle.

Because the system was built integration-first, any future scope extension — information security, energy management, or additional aerospace requirements — is an extension of the existing platform rather than a fresh start.

Key Takeaways for Aerospace and Advanced Manufacturers in the UAE

• AS9100 is not "ISO 9001 for aircraft". Configuration management, product safety, counterfeit parts, FOD, special processes and First Article Inspection are substantive shop-floor requirements. A consultant who treats AS9100 as ISO 9001 with a new cover page will fail you at Stage 2.
• Check the certification body's aerospace listing, not just its accreditation. AS9100 operates under the IAQG ICOP scheme with certificates published in OASIS. A certificate outside that scheme is of little value to an aerospace customer.
• Integrate from day one. Four standards, four systems and four audit cycles is a tax on an engineering team. One integrated system is cheaper to build, far cheaper to maintain, and much easier to extend.
• Implementation before certification is the harder route — and the right one. A certificate obtained ahead of a working system fails at the first surveillance audit. Mira Aerospace's decision to mature the system first is precisely why its certification audit will be uneventful.
• In advanced manufacturing, environment and safety are engineering problems. Composite dust, epoxy sensitisers, solvent emissions and lithium battery thermal risk are not administrative topics. ISO 14001 and ISO 45001 belong on the shop floor alongside the quality system.

About Qdot International Consultancy

Qdot is a UAE-based management systems consultancy specialising in the design, implementation, integration and ongoing support of internationally certified management systems — including ISO 9001, ISO 14001, ISO 45001, ISO 27001, ISO 22301, ISO 50001, ISO 22000, ISO/IEC 17025, HACCP, HALAL, SEDEX/SMETA, NCEMA 7000 and sector-specific schemes such as AS9100. Operating since 2016, Qdot has supported more than 4,000 clients across the UAE, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Bahrain, Kuwait and Pakistan.

Qdot works exclusively with IAF-accredited certification bodies, holds ISO 9001:2015 and ISO 20700:2017 certification, and maintains no commercial relationship with any certification body — ensuring that advice on certification routes is given in the client's interest alone. Clients range from aerospace and heavy industry manufacturers to food processors, laboratories, government authorities and diversified conglomerates.