Web Page sponsor Oxley Developments
www.oxleygroup.com
————————————————————————
17 Nov 14. GKN Aerospace is to lead a challenging 13-partner, 27 month, GBP30m future wing research programme, backed by the UK’s Aerospace Technology Institute (ATI). The VIEWS (Validation and Integration of Manufacturing Enablers for Future Wing Structures) programme will bring promising wing design, manufacture and assembly technologies near to market readiness, whilst selecting some novel technologies for further development. VIEWS will progress technologies that have emerged from the recently completed STeM (Structures Technology Maturity) research programme. Also led by GKN Aerospace, STeM has identified processes that could reduce by 20% the cost of manufacture and assembly of a typical composite box structure.
Simon Weeks, Chief Technology Officer of the Institute says: “The STeM collaborative R&T programme, managed by GKN Aerospace, demonstrated the very best in terms of innovation and promise for the future.”
The work of the new VIEWS programme will span manufacturing and assembly processes including: identifying and defining future manufacturing requirements to produce novel wing architectures; assessing tools that will improve product and process design and enhance the flow of production; progressing a variety of emerging composite and metallic manufacturing and assembly technologies and processes; and studying innovative inspection and repair tools. In the final stages, the partner companies will produce test demonstrators to validate the maturity of key technologies. The VIEWS team includes four industrial partners: GKN Aerospace, Bombardier Aerospace, Spirit AeroSystems, and GE Aviation; five of the UK’s high value manufacturing catapult centres: the National Composites Centre, the Manufacturing Technology Centre, the Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (the University of Sheffield),the Warwick Manufacturing Group (the University of Warwick) and the Advanced Forming Research Centre (the University of Strathclyde); and the Universities of Nottingham, Bath, Bristol and Sheffield Hallam.
Rich Oldfield, Technical Director, GKN Aerospace explains: “Through the Institute the UK aerospace sector is able to work together effectively to develop promising technologies and processes that will help us maintain our position as the strongest national aerospace industry outside the USA. STeM saw us make valuable progress and VIEWS will work from that base, taking us nearer to market readiness with a new generation of automated processes and technologies that will extend what we in the UK are able to manufacture, at the same time as increasing the quality, consistency and speed of production.”
18 Nov 14. Lockheed Martin has opened the Surface Navy Innovation Center (SNIC) to support the development of new technologies for the U.S. Navy. The SNIC is a research, development and demonstration facility that brings together industry, government and academia to design the next generation of capabilities the surface fleet needs to combat evolving threats around the world. “The SNIC establishes a community space to promote rapid technology fielding that addresses the Navy’s most pressing challenges,” said Jim Sheridan, director of Aegis U.S. Navy programs. “As the maritime security environment changes, we will find new ways to use products and best practices to benefit the sailors who rely on these systems to defend our nation.” The center will foster collaboration among key organizations to rapidly develop emerging technologies and quickly put them into service. To stay ahead of threats, Lockheed Martin is committed to making ongoing improvements to its current systems and integrating the most advanced technologies to meet the needs of its U.S. Navy customers. Building on Lockheed Martin’s 100-year history of innovation, the SNIC also continues the development of the Aegis Combat System to m