R. Forster, Airbus SAS, Blagnac, France

Summary:

Russia, having inherited a major part of Soviet aircraft industry boasts considerable capabilities, especially in the field of materials development.

Russia possesses materials that could potentially become alternatives to standard western materials. The Russians also have considerable experience in producing Aluminium/Lithium alloys and in innovative composites technologies. However, application of Russian materials to western products is not generally straightforward.

Airbus’s approach with its key Russian Partners, such as VIAM, has been to conduct evaluation phases on a number of alloys with the aim of generating data that allows the direct comparison of the properties of the Russian materials with current western material specifications. Development phases have frequently followed on the shortlisted materials, with the aim of refining the materials’ characteristics where necessary.

Today, Airbus and its Russian Partners are concentrating on performing “prequalification” activities on a short-list of advanced materials, which possess true potential.

The presentation will describe these activities and the experience gained in this work.