- Complex composite, exotic metal, glass and acrylic structures supplied for the 787 airframe and engines
GKN Aerospace joined Boeing at Heathrow airport today to celebrate the latest stop in the 787 Dreamliner aircraft’s worldwide ‘Dream Tour’.
Across all its major areas of business - engine products, aerostructures, transparencies and ice protection - GKN Aerospace is closely involved with this pioneering airframe - with a number of ‘life of programme’ contracts underway for both airframe and engine structures. The company estimates the total ship set value of its contribution to the aircraft to be approximately USD2.75m.
The structures and systems that GKN Aerospace supplies for the 787 include:
- The airframe’s innovative electro thermal wing ice protection system – in partnership with Ultra Electronics. The company’s facility in Luton, UK, has developed and now manufactures a unique plasma deposited heater mat that is embedded into the aircraft’s composite wing slat leading edge structure. The 24 mats per ship set link with the Ultra Electronics control system to give more controllable, directed ice protection at reduced weight and lower fuel consumption.
- The advanced, laminated and coated high performance passenger cabin windows (pcw) - the largest pcw in service on a commercial airliner today - and the cockpit window frames.
- The state of the art, fabricated rear fan case for the Trent 1000 engine
- The world’s first all-composite fan containment case - for the GEnX-1b engine.
- A number of other vital exotic metal engine structures for both the Rolls-Royce and GE engine options
- A range of structural titanium wing-to-body and wing-to-nacelle fittings as well as a variety of other complex machined assemblies and wing structures;
- Passenger floor assemblies that include composite, titanium and other machined details and subsystems constituting over 20,000 parts per assembly
- Light weight, innovative titanium seat tracks and panel supports