S. Spangel, Corus Aluminium Rolled Products, Koblenz, Germany; A. Burger, Corus Aluminium Rolled Products, Kent, WA; R. Nash, Kaiser Aluminum, Spokane, WA; W. S. Miller, V. Morra, Corus Research Development & Technology, IJmuiden, Netherlands

Summary: The aircraft industry requires improved aluminium alloy plate that enables higher performance while simultaneously delivering reduced costs. Extreme cost and performance pressures on the Aircraft Original Equipment Manufacturers by the airline customers requires that the performance capability of aluminium plate is fully utilized in order to be competitive against other materials such as fiber reinforced composites or other high performance metals. CORUS has developed new plate alloys for wing structures and new thick plate alloys for use in general or integrated structures. This presentation covers the recent high performance aluminium plate developments by Corus Aluminium Rolled Products together with Corus Research, Development & Technology to support the design and manufacture of new aircraft structures.