GKN talks technology at Farnborough

At the Farnborough International Airshow, GKN Aerospace's director of technology, Rich Oldfield discussed developments across the company's areas of expertise, examining how the company expects these to evolve in the coming decade.

Discussing composites, Oldfield covered research programmes that are expected to impact airframe design and revolutionise composite manufacture enabling high performance structures to be produced at higher speed and lower cost. He examined the issues that are critical for the next generation of airframe structures including composite damage protection and evolving repair techniques. He described the move to apply this aerostructures expertise to the aero-engine and the current joint venture activity with Rolls-Royce. Oldfield finished by discussing the Composites Grand Challenge in which GKN Aerospace leads 22 major industrial partners through the recently launched UK National Composites Centre in a programme aimed at progressing a wide range of technologies for composite production.

“We are driving technology forward across all our areas of expertise to ensure we can contribute to meeting market performance needs and international environmental targets for aviation in future decades,” stated Oldfield.

“Technological and manufacturing developments already underway are taking us into a period of significant change in the way we design and manufacture aircraft and this will lead to a new generation of airframes and aero-engines that are quicker to manufacture and repair, far more efficient and much more environmentally clean to operate.”

www.gknaerospace.com