1484. Advanced Material Application on the European Wide Body Transport Aircraft Airbus

Paper

Abstract

Due to the dramatic increase of fuel price since 1973, today’s fuel expenses have become the major portion in percentage of DOC.
Fuel savings by means of advanced technology application in materials and structures as well as propulsion and aerodynamics of course have become more and more significant.
The efforts t o use new materials , such as aramid reinforced and graphite reinforced composites, have increased considerably because of the important weight saving potential which can be achieved to-day on an economic basis.
In this paper, the use of advanced materials for weight reduction improvement will be demonstrated on Airbus Industrie’s A310 transport aircraft.
Several examples of aircraft structural parts in advanced composite structure will be described and the weight savings thus achieved will be explained with reference to the replaced standard type of constructions.
As a concluding item, an outline of future possible application of advanced materials to further primary and secondary aircraft structures will be presented.