Leonardo, all the news coming for the Aerostructures division

There is a program in the pipeline in Europe to bring development capabilities to innovatively produce aircraft wings. Facts, hypotheses and scenarios after the words of Leonardo's CEO, Alessandro Profumo

"There is a program that I do not want to talk about now, because hopefully it will be defined in the coming weeks: we will be able, in our Southern factories, if this program is approved by the European defense system, to bring development capabilities to make innovative way of the wings ".

This was announced by Leonardo's CEO, Alessandro Profumo, with a hint during his speech at the EY Capri Digital Summit last week.

It is an opportunity, he says, that will be based on "a very complicated complicated mix of technology and capabilities".

Profumo talked about it thinking about the “aerostructures sector, which is the sector most impacted by the Covid crisis. We make pieces of commercial airplanes and at least you travel the fewer airplanes you sell ”. A sector, therefore, that “has to completely reinvent itself”.

The Aerostructures division of the former Finmeccanica is in fact affected by the drop in production rates of the Boeing 787 and Atr programs. Even though Profumo himself recently pointed out that the aerostructures division "weighs less than 10% of our total turnover".

So what could this new program be for making wings in an innovative way? Here's an idea.

THE INNOVATIVE WING DEVELOPED BY MIT AND NASA

Last year, researchers from MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) announced the development of a new type of wing in collaboration with NASA. It is an airplane wing that can change shape and increase the efficiency of aircraft flight, production and maintenance.

The wing designed by the MIT and NASA researchers would be more aerodynamic than the conventional one, able to move in its entirety. The wing is made up of hundreds of identical small pieces that contain rigid and flexible components that make it lighter and more efficient than traditional airplane wings. Since the wing could adapt to the particular characteristics of each phase of flight (take off, landing, cruise, etc.), it could work better than traditional wings.

The wing parts are arranged in a lattice structure: the whole structure has numerous hollow parts, which give life to a super elastic, light and extremely resistant material.

AT WHAT POINT IS THE PROJECT

As Focus underlined last year, “the MIT researchers who made the prototype also dealt with its possible industrialization. They have developed a production process based on 3D printing thanks to which it is possible to create the thousands of components necessary for the construction of the wing at very competitive costs ".

“But it will be a long time before we see it on commercial aircraft,” said Focus . "The first applications of this new technology will likely be in the aerospace industry."

WHAT THE CEO OF LEONARDO SAID

Could this be the program that will be defined in the coming weeks announced by the number one of the former Finmeccanica?

Profumo talked about it thinking about the “aerostructures sector, which is the sector most impacted by the Covid crisis. A sector that must completely reinvent itself ”.

“And we – said Profumo – can only reinvent ourselves by thinking about the future, thinking about innovations, for example on how to use composite more, or with new characteristics; or think about how to use our skills in other outlets. Or think about how to do in a different way what we already do today ”.

THE SITUATION OF THE ESTABLISHMENT OF GROTTAGLIE

This latter solution was hoped for by unions and employees of the Leonardo aerostructures plants in the South, especially Grottaglie and Pomigliano.

In fact, the changed market conditions concern the Leonardo di Grottaglie (Taranto) plant, where two sections of the carbon fiber fuselage of the Boeing 787 are built.

Currently the Grottaglie site, where 1,300 direct employees work, is holding a production step of ten fuselage pairs (the central and the central rear) per month. In 2019, 14 pairs were also produced.

Despite the reassurances of Deputy Minister Buffagni after the meeting with the Leonardo management a month ago, the agitation among the workers in the plant remains for the deceleration of Boeing orders.

In fact, in September there were three production stops on three Fridays of the month. The suspension is part of a business plan that has already brought the Apulian plant to a halt, with a collective closure and holidays for all staff, from 6 August until the end of the month.

Employees and trade unions were therefore awaiting Boeing's production program for 2021.

"The new Boeing production program, which at the Leonardo site in Grottaglie already circulates on all PCs even if the company has not yet formally shared it with the unions, provides that from the current 10 pairs of fuselage sections of the 787 it will go down to 6 in mid-2021, in which month is not specified, however, to remain so for two years, until mid-2023 ".

This was reported on 6 October to Uilm's Agi Davide Sperti after the request for a meeting that the metalworkers' union itself sent to the ministers Stefano Patuanelli (Mise) and Nunzia Catalfo (Lavoro), as well as to Leonardo's CEO, Alessandro Profumo, and to the president of the Puglia Region, Michele Emiliano.

STARTED PATH OF INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL CONFLICTUALITY

This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/innovazione/leonardo-tutte-le-novita-in-arrivo-per-la-divisione-aerostrutture/ on Tue, 13 Oct 2020 13:10:45 +0000.