Technology Breakthrough – Eurocopter Produces the Worldwide first all-Composite Airplane door in one piece
Eurocopter has stepped into a new era of passenger airplane structure design. The world’s first all-composite airplane door was successfully produced in Donauwörth at the Eurocopter Deutschland plant in a so called “one-shot curing” process.
Marignane, 07 July 2004
By injecting resin into a special mould Eurocopter was able to manufacture a complex airplane door as one single piece, incl. all respective elements such as beams, frames and the external doors skin. This is the worldwide first door of such kind, and based on its broad experience in this technology field Eurocopter is now in the position to offer optimum light weight doors for new aircraft programmes as well as substitutes in weight critical existing programmes.
“This is a true technology breakthrough after an intensive and successful development phase”, says Bert Stegkemper, Eurocopter Senior Vice President. “It proves once more that Eurocopter is not only leading the market in airplane-door design, but that we were able to reduce the immanent complexity in this field of construction to a large extent while benefiting from an incredible weight decrease at the same time.” Future serial passenger door structures will have a reduced weight of approx 30% compared to today’s aluminium constructions.
The door was defined and designed within the European Research Programme FUBACOMP (for a business aircraft) since 2001, and now undergoes extensive Non Destructive Testing (NDT) as well as static and dynamic testing to conclude the proof of concept.
Eurocopter produces next to helicopters at its German site in Donauwörth more than two thirds of all Airbus doors and is prime contractor in this field for the A380. It holds more than 30 active patents in the field of airplane door production.
Eurocopter is a wholly-owned subsidiary of EADS. EADS is a global leader in aerospace, defence and related services. In 2003 EADS, generated revenues of € 30.1 billion and employed a workforce of about 109,000. The EADS Group includes the aircraft manufacturer Airbus, the world’s largest helicopter supplier Eurocopter and the joint venture MBDA, the second-largest missile producer in the global market. EADS is the major partner in the Eurofighter consortium, is the prime contractor for the Ariane launcher, develops the A400M military transport aircraft and is the largest industrial partner for the European satellite navigation system Galileo.
For further information, please contact:
| Jean Louis ESPES |
Tel : + 33 (0)4 42 85 95 55 Fax : + 33 (0)4 42 85 95 64 |
|
Eurocopter Aéroport International Marseille Provence F-13725 Marignane Cedex France | |
| Christina GOTZHEIN |
Tel : + 49 (0) 89 6000 64 88 Fax : + 49 (0) 89 6000 44 37 |
|
Eurocopter Deutschland GmbH D-81663 München Germany | |
| Chantal LINARES |
Tel : + 33 (0)4 42 85 60 51 Fax : + 33 (0)4 42 85 95 64 |
|
Eurocopter Aéroport International Marseille Provence F-13725 Marignane Cedex – France | |
| Christoph MÜLLER |
Tel : + 49 (0) 906 71 45 65 Fax : + 49 (0) 906 71 46 74 |
|
Eurocopter Deutschland GmbH D-86607 Donauwörth Germany |
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