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AEROSPACE AUTOMOTIVE BUILDING RAIL ELECTRONICS MEDIA & PR |
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Airbus is a company which delights in setting the standard for the commercial aircraft industry. Throughout the company’s history, the defining factor of Airbus’ success has been an enthusiasm for new ideas, new materials and new techniques. Attention to detail is par for the course and both the A330 and A340 have cabins designed to offer operators greater flexibility to configure the aircraft to suit their passengers and their marketing. The lower decks are now being developed for use as sleeping cabins, passenger lounges and a crew rest area, ideal for the new longer flights. Airbus have long pioneered new materials to ensure structural longevity whilst reducing weight and improving performance. The A310 was the first aircraft to use carbon fibre composites in primary structural elements and the A380, the world’s first twin-aisle, twin-deck aircraft will be the most advanced yet in terms of materials used. It will have new glass fibre/metal laminated composites, aluminium-lithium alloys and carbon fibre reinforced plastics for even greater weight reduction.
The newest Airbus aircraft are the high capacity A340-600 and its sister aircraft, the ultra long range A340-500. The A340-600 made its maiden flight in Toulouse in April of 2001 (above). Airbus is leading the way in air travel for the future and Superform are delighted to have played a part in the development plans.
Sean Sleath, Project Manager at BAE Airbus UK said “We asked Superform to manufacture the landing lamp drum and reinforcing ring for the Airbus A340-500/600 (pictured above). These are located within the fixed leading edge interfacing with the fuselage. Both perform important functions. The drum acts as a barrel to stop any fuel vapour igniting due to the high temperatures the lamp reaches. The shape of the drum and ring interfacing within the lamp glazing assembly is complicated as they are aerodynamic profiled in two planes and the Superform process was ideal to produce these complex shapes. We looked at other manufacturing processes and materials like composite but due to the size and shape complexity Superform proved to be the simplest and most economical route to achieve the design requirements.. We now have a strong design/ build working relationship with Superform and the design has evolved to suit the process while the tooling philosophy has been adapted with Superform input.” |
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