Yorkshire aboard new Boeing 787 Dreamliner
mercredi, 13 janvier 2010
A bit of Rotherham, in South Yorkshire, took to the US skies last month in the shape of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner.
The new jet, which made its first flight in December, is the first to be made with a majority of composite materials - a quarter of which are manufactured in the UK.
Moreover, South Yorkshire has played a key role in designing its revolutionary landing gear.
Landing gear specialist Messier-Dowty approached Sheffield University's Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC) with Boeing to see if it was feasible to make landing gear parts from a new grade of titanium alloy. Previously, landing gear had been made from steel.
Using a combination of manufacturing techniques AMRC satisfied complex demands needs and substantially reduced the development time.
Critically, this enabled the manufacturing times to be reduced along with the cost and enabled Messier-Dowty to win the order - the first time it has been won by a company outside the US.
There are some 840 Dreamliners on order with the first scheduled for delivery late next year.
More than 5,000 people are employed in the region's aerospace industry alone with most companies supplying components to major assemblers.
Today, Yorkshire is home to around 5,600 advanced engineering and materials companies generating in excess £4.9bn a year for the region’s economy.
The AMRC is an incubation centre home to early-stage, high-growth SMEs which benefit from the collaborative opportunities presented by their location. The Environmental Energy Technology Centre (EETC), adjoining the site also enables engineering businesses to exploit the huge growth opportunities in environmental and energy technologies.