Metallic Solutions for Tomorrow's Airframe Structures

The economic environment for aircraft manufacturing today is both changing and challenging: on the positive side, demand for airline travel and thus for new aircraft is expected to be strong over the next decade or so.  However, high oil prices, increasing sensitivity to the environmental impact of air travel, and the success of low cost airlines have all significantly changed the expectations and constraints regarding aircraft performance.  These changes affect requirements for new airframe structures, which must as ever be low weight, low cost, but must also enable lower cost maintenance.  There is in addition an increasing requirement for technology robustness, reduced lead time and ecologically responsible manufacturing.

Metallic solutions have significant potential for these future aircraft,  Alcan has been shaping its offer for future airframes over the last couple of years, focusing on several avenues.  We have activated our traditional improvement approach – new alloy development – with a particular focus on Al-Cu-Li alloys.  The economic and environmental viability of such solutions depends our ability to recycle them efficiently, which is now an integral part of our offer.  These new alloys, with full scale scrap recycling capability, and the technological support required to get the most from these alloys, for example by innovative joining or design solution, constitute Alcan’s AIRWARE™ technology. 

Over and above the technologies mentioned above, which have been selected for ongoing aircraft programs, there is a need for metallic solutions to explore higher potential but lower maturity technologies, which are expected to bring step-changes in performance.  Examples include incorporating structural health monitoring capable features in wrought aluminium products, tailored property parts, aeroelastic tailoring, and low drag surfaces.  All these have been demonstrated at relatively small scale, and now need to be brought to a higher technology readiness level.

Illustrations of the aforementioned technologies will be presented, along with both calculated benefits in terms of airframe weight and estimates of their technology readiness dates