GE Aviation's aerostructures business of GE Aviation, Hamble will contribute to bringing new aircraft wing design, manufacture and assembly technologies nearer to market readiness – while also pursuing novel technologies for further development – through participation in a UK research program with 12 other partners.

This research program, named VIEWS (Validation and Integration of Manufacturing Enablers for Future Wing Structures), will focus on developing manufacturing and assembly processes. As a member of the VIEWS team, GE Aviation, Hamble will leverage its extensive expertise in aerostructures, which includes the company's current production of wing fixed trailing edge packages for Airbus' A350 XWB jetliner. The trailing edge package comprises 3,000 deliverable components, incorporating structural composite panels, complex machined parts and assemblies.

VIEWS has been established to identify and define future manufacturing requirements for the production of novel concept wing architectures. The VIEWS program will assess tools that could improve product and process design and enhance the flow of production, progressing a variety of emerging composite and metallic manufacturing and assembly technologies and processes, while studying innovative inspection and repair tools. In the final stages, partner companies will produce a variety of test demonstrators to validate the maturity of key technologies.

The 27-month, £30 million VIEWS research program is backed by the UK's Aerospace Technology Institute, a part of the UK's Industrial Strategy. It will continue progressing technologies that have emerged from the recently-completed STeM (Structures Technology Maturity) project.

“The UK has played a key role in the aviation industry's development through its aircraft wing design and production excellence, which is being continued with such collaborative efforts as STeM and VIEWS,” said Simon Randell, product leader - GE Aviation, Hamble. “The VIEWS team can rely on GE Aviation's full support in defining new technologies and processes.”

Joining GE Aviation in the VIEWS team are three industrial partners: GKN Aerospace, who is leading this program, plus Bombardier and Spirit AeroSystems; together with five of the UK's high-value manufacturing Catapult centers: the National Composites Centre, the Manufacturing Technology Centre, the Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre, the Warwick Manufacturing Group and the Advanced Forming Research Centre; and the Universities of Nottingham, Bath, Bristol and Sheffield Hallam.