Group Force
Monday 8th September 2008
The upcoming launch of the Aerospace Group within Composites UK comes at an exciting time for the industry. The sector is facing significant changes in both the military and civil areas. There is an exponential growth in demand for composites within the civil large wing sector from the UK base and as part of strategic partnerships to supply global programmes such as Airbus' A380, the Bombardier CSeries, Boeing's Dreamliner and the Airbus A400M.
For military aircraft, JSF is moving into its production phase, Typhoon into a significant support phase and there is a transitional change in focus from manned new build to UAVs. Further to these we are also seeing a growth in the take up of composites in the rotary wing sector with composites not only being used to achieve complex surface shaping and weight reductions but also to improve fatigue tolerance. These changes are driving a demand for growth in engineering and manufacturing competencies, processes, core technologies and trained personnel. It is becoming more apparent that across the UK there is a growth in the number of activities to address these issues but as yet these remain to be point solutions.
Composites design and manufacturing is vital to the future of the UK Aerospace industry and supply chains and as the key trade body for composites engineering in the UK, the thrust of the Aerospace Group will be to raise the profile and effectiveness of this industry sector by bringing together the key strategic companies, academia and key customers.
The launch of this sector group is planned to begin with a meeting attended by a cross-section of the influential sector businesses, academic institutions and customers. The aim at this stage is to capture their requirements and gauge the level of interest in this initiative.
In the longer term the Aerospace Group aims to achieve the networking of the sector's key players together with the wider aerospace composites community to influence a more effective, efficient and synergistic set of solutions for the UK. The group will aim to identify and share best practices, foster the relationships across the industry, benchmark capabilities to improve competitiveness, look at future trends in the technology and together with academic centres of excellence help in the development of advances that are capable of being effectively deployed into UK industry.
The announcement of the Next Generation Composite Wing programme (see pages 102 & 103) has profiled the vital need for training. The Aerospace Group will identify and work with key national training programmes in composite design, manufacture and repair such as those currently being launched in the North West of England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
In liaison with the professional institutes and academia the aim will be to facilitate the achievement of a coordinated suite of training modules for all levels.
The UK supply chain is absolutely vital to the success of the aerospace sector and so the Aerospace Group will also aim to encourage the active involvement of the whole supply chain to identify where and how technology, design, manufacturing and repair capabilities may be improved.
There is no doubt that the UK is at a point of significant change in the course of its aerospace industry. Composites UK has an express objective to seek the growth in the membership of its aerospace sector and proactively encourage a growth in its knowledge and competency bases.
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