Through its two canadian subsidiaries, Stelia Aeronautique Canada and Stelia North America, Stelia Aerospace has just started a project with Bombardier in the frame of a new collaborative research project, the AILE project (Aile Intelligente et Legere pour l'Environnement or Intelligent and Light Wing for Environment).

This project, part of the third phase of the mobilising Project for an eco-friendly aircraft SA2GE-3 (Systemes Aeronautiques d'Avant-Garde pour l'Environnement or Cutting-edge Aeronautical Systems for Environment), supported by the government of Quebec, will be part of a 3 year partnership and will consist for Stelia Aerospace in the production of a high-lift trailing edge flap made of thermoplastic composite, destined to a test bed for Bombardier.

Stelia Aeronautique Canada's research & technology (R&T) teams, supported by the France-based R&T team, will manage the project and its design and scaling phase. Manufacturing of the tooling and the scale 1 demonstrator will be managed by Stelia Aerospace North America.

For this new R&T project, Stelia Aerospace will be backed by two partners : FusiA Impression 3D Metal Inc for the production and design of 3D print metal hinges (a Quebec company whose French sister-company, is already a partner of Stelia Aerospace in the SAMBA project - Shock Absorder Material for Bird Shield Application) and the CNRC (Conseil National de Recherches du Canada – Canadian National Research Center), already a partner of Stelia Aerospace for metal research projects, who will bring its know-how and resources on thermoplastic composite materials.

Stelia Aerospace has been engaged with Bombardier for 3 years already, in the context of a first collaborative R&T project aiming at reducing the cycle time necessary to the production of a metallic wing frame for business jets.

Cedric Gautier, CEO of Stelia Aerospace, said: 'This new project with Bombardier highlights our wish to build strong links with our customer and will enable us to pursue our skill development strategy, while developing our footprint in Canada in terms of Research & Technology.'