AAI signs multi-year agreement with GKN Aerospace

Arcadia Aerospace Industries, LLC is pleased to announce the signing of a long-term partnership agreement with GKN Aerospace (Tallassee, AL) to provide Nondestructive Inspection of large composite airframe components.

Arcadia Aerospace Industries (AAI) and GKN Aerospace have worked closely together across several aircraft programs for the last five years. Charles Bushman, President and founder of Arcadia Aerospace expressed, “The partnership with GKN strengthens our commitment to the aerospace industry to provide value added solutions to the increasingly more complex structures emerging. Together, we have unique synergies to provide the industry with unparalleled composite expertise in large structures fabrication and inspection.” Additionally, the two companies have been preparing for the design and implementation of a 'Center for Composites Manufacturing Excellence' located just outside Montgomery, AL. High-performance composite technology has become the airframe material of choice in the industry today due to weight reduction and heightened performance for both military and commercial aircraft.

In support of this effort, Arcadia Aerospace is developing a new facility strategically located in proximity to GKN Aerospace in Tallassee, Alabama, less than three hours from the new Airbus Final Assembly Line in the Mobile Aeroplex at Brookley. Once completed, the facility will be Nadcap accredited for Nondestructive Inspection in addition to a FAA approved repair facility servicing both metal and composite manufacturers. The new facility, scheduled to be production ready mid-year 2014, will be the inspection rate-readiness site for new composites intensive programs.

The new state-of-the-art facility will house the nation's largest, multiple technology, automated robotic inspection system. The system, designed and fabricated by Arcadia's engineering team, boasts the ability to provide internal defect and external dimensional inspections of components to 90 feet in length and 14 feet in width. Delivering a total of 19-axes of motion working in high-speed synchronization, the system provides conventional ultrasonic, linear array, thermographic, and digital x-ray inspection technologies for the detection of internal defects. In addition, the new facility will house AAI's next generation of automated overhead gantry inspection systems capable of handling round product over 14 feet in diameter.