Albany Engineered Composites Partners with Airbus on Wing of Tomorrow Program

 

Source | Airbus

 

Albany International Corp. (Rochester, N.H., U.S.) announced on Dec. 6 that its subsidiary, Albany Engineered Composites, has signed a two-year Collaborative Research Agreement (CRA) with Airbus (Toulouse, France) on the Wing of Tomorrow program, to apply Albany’s 3D reinforced composites technology to next-generation wing substructure applications.

Albany’s 3D composite technology, used extensively today in the CFM LEAP Engine, will be adapted to meet the requirements of Airbus’s next-generation airframe and production system. Albany says its innovative resin-infused dry 3D fiber preform technology will deliver a cost-effective, out-of-autoclave (OOA) wing substructure solution to Airbus that achieves superior damage tolerance and resistance to out-of-plane loads, and is more scalable to desired production rates for next-generation, single-aisle aircraft.

“We are very pleased to collaborate with Airbus to apply our 3D design and manufacturing know-how to their next generation aircraft,” says Olivier Jarrault, Albany International president and CEO. “We believe Albany provides unique design and production capabilities to Airbus, and this agreement marks an exciting and important next step in our relationship.”

Read more CW coverage about Wing of Tomorrow:

• In Oct. 2019, GKN Aerospace delivered an RTM demonstrator tool for manufacturing a composite wing spar with reduced costs and weight.
• In Oct. 2019, Toray Advanced Composites partnered with the National Composites Centre to collaborate on R&D programs such as Wing of Tomorrow.
• In July 2019, GKN Aerospace manufactured the program’s first demonstrator wing components.
• In July 2019, Spirit AeroSystems announced its collaboration on Wing of Tomorrow.