C Series earns its wings – Aerospace Manufacturing Magazine
Technical editor, Dr Neil Calder gets the wind beneath his wings to discuss the latest developments regarding the Bombardier CS100’s introduction into service, and particularly its Belfast manufactured composite wings.Swiss International Air Lines, the launch customer for Bombardier’s CS100, made very strong statements about its satisfaction with the performance of this aircraft at the 2016 Farnborough Airshow launch event to mark its entry into revenue service on 15th July.
The delivery on promises of improvements in specific fuel consumption is dependent primarily upon advanced engine and structures technology, with a large part played by the wing performance. This has taken some decades of very deliberate technology and production capability development.
Gavin Campbell, Bombardier’s director, engineering and technology development in Belfast, succinctly describes the wing as “successful!” The structure of the wing’s main load bearing torque box is carbon fibre spars and integrally stiffened upper and lower wingbox covers, creating a tapered cantilever beam. All these primary structures are resin transfer infused (RTI) carbon fibre. C Series is the first aircraft into the market with this technology, which is different from other carbon fibre wings in that they all use prepreg material.
