Traveling Light: GE Composites Give Brand New Airbus Jet a Lift
GE has started building an advanced composites plant that will supply lightweight wing components for one of the world’s most innovative passenger planes, the Airbus A350. The jet had its maiden flight on June 14, on the eve of the Paris Airshow.
GE Aviation traditionally makes high-end composites for next-generation jet engines like the GEnx and the LEAP. But the A350 will be the first passenger jet using advanced GE composites inside its structure.
GE is building the new $50 million, 100,000 square-foot composites plant in Hamble, U.K., near Southampton. Workers at the plant will use an advanced manufacturing method that combines vacuum and heat to harden the composite wing components. Engineers call this method “out-of-autoclave” because it skips a step that involves a kind of giant pressure cooker ovens called autoclaves to manufacture the parts....
