A view from the factory

Manufacturing techniques and materials used in other industries may be debuting at aerospace factories near you.

The aerospace manufacturing industry is in for a step-change, believes Andrew Walker, Professor at the University of Manchester, who is also Director of Britain's Northern Aerospace Technology Exploitation Center (NATEC). The Universities of Manchester and Sheffield established NATEC in 2002. It is involved with almost 40 businesses at 12 institutions. It has three divisions: industrial services (including testing centers); productivity (robotics, lasers, lean engineering); and new products (including fuel cells).

In a report issued at the time of Farnborough International 2004, Walker, who has wide engineering experience in both the aerospace and automotive industries, said that not only will new civil aircraft be launched much more frequently-perhaps every eight to 10 years, closer to the automotive industry-but they will also use new materials, mainly carbon composites, and new construction methods which just might include the reappearance of the geodetic system, first used in the 1930s for airships. Walker also foresees mechanized manufacturing in aerospace factories.