Warwick Manufacturing Group secures place on new aerospace project

The Warwick Manufacturing Group based at the University of Warwick has been chosen as one of two Coventry engineering hubs to take part in a new £30 million aerospace project.

Alongside the Manufacturing Technology Centre at Ansty Park, the campus-based centre is set to play a key role in a new research programme which will seek to revolutionise the design and manufacture of aircraft wings.

Five manufacturing centres in total are taking part in the Aerospace Technology Institute VIEWS programme, led by GKN Aerospace.

VIEWS – the Validation and Integration of Manufacturing Enablers for Future Wing Structures – ultimately aim to reduce the costs of wing design, manufacture and assembly by at least 20 percent.

The project will assess current wing architecture design, production tooling as well as the potential use of advanced new materials such as composites.

Rich Oldfield, technical director of GKN Aerospace, said: “Through the Aerospace Technology Institute the UK aerospace sector is able to work together effectively to develop promising technologies and processes that will help us maintain our position as the strongest national aerospace industry outside the USA.

“VIEWS will work from that base, taking us nearer to market readiness with a new generation of automated processes and technologies that will extend what we in the UK are able to manufacture, at the same time as increasing the quality, consistency and speed of production.”

The general team also includes Bombardier Aerospace, Spirit AeroSystems, and GE Aviation as well the universities of Nottingham, Bath, Bristol and Sheffield Hallam.

The three other centres involved in the research programme include the National Composites Centre in Bristol, the Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre at the University of Sheffield and the Advanced Forming Research Centre at the University of Strathclyde.