Advanced Products Offer for High Performance Air Frames

Future aircraft will need to offer a reduced environmental impact, a reduced operating cost and more comfort for passengers. In addition, leaner and faster manufacturing are required. Material choices have a significant impact on all these criteria.

 In order to reduce fuel burn, future aircraft will need further weight reduction of the airframe structure. High performance alloys combined with innovative design concepts lead to 10 – 20% weight reductions compared to last generation flying aircraft. In particular low density alloys open a new range of opportunities. These alloys not only offer significant performance increase, but also have a positive impact on airframe maintenance. For example, compared to today’s flying alloys, the use of low density alloys leads to a step change in corrosion resistance, which opens possibilities for the use of more environmentally friendly surface treatments for future aircraft. Improved damage tolerance can be exploited for maintenance interval increase or for weight reduction.

 A second axis of evaluation of future solutions is the cost aspect which should not only cover the intrinsic cost of the material, but also the full expenditure to make the final part of the airframe. In order to reduce cost of the final part, manufacturability and optimized buy-to-fly ratios need to be taken into account. Modern assembling techniques as friction stir welding open possibilities for cost efficient airframes. Alloys with good weldability, like low density alloys in particular, allow lean processes for full pre-assembled aircraft structures.

 An update of Alcan’s alloy portfolio will be presented including their use in advanced assembly concepts. Comparisons to today’s flying structures will be mentioned as baseline in order to better appreciate the step-change which has been made in the last decade.