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In today's assembly of large complex Carbon Fiber Reinforced Plastics (CFRP) components, e.g. vertical tail planes (VTP) of modern passenger aircrafts, liquid resin-based materials are used for several applications. Commonly, liquid resin-based materials are used to close gaps between the CFRP single parts during assembly (shimming) or to smoothen outer surfaces to fulfill aerodynamic requirements (aerodynamic sealing). Curing times of standard resin-based materials vary between eight to twelve hours at room temperature under normal shopfloor conditions regarding air humidity. In running aircraft production such long curing times are definitely waste in the sense of lead time. By heating these resin-based materials the common curing time can drastically be reduced down to two hours. By using heated air - instead of e.g. heating lamps - the curing process can reliably be controlled, without any risk of overheating and destroying the sealant or shim material.

The term Integrated Vehicle Health Management (IVHM) describes a set of capabilities that enable sustainable and safe operation of components and subsystems within aerospace platforms. However, very little guidance exists for the systems engineering aspects of design with IVHM in mind. It is probably because of this that designers have to use knowledge picked up exclusively by experience rather than by established process. This motivated a group of leading IVHM practitioners within the aerospace industry under the aegis of SAE's HM-1 technical committee to author a document that hopes to give working engineers and program managers clear guidance on all the elements of IVHM that they need to consider before designing a system. This proposed recommended practice (ARP6883 [1]) will describe all the steps of requirements generation and management as it applies to IVHM systems, and demonstrate these with a “real-world” example related to designing a landing gear system.

In the frame of incremental product improvement, AIRBUS has developed and implemented a new innovative rapid decompression / pressure relieve concept for the cargo compartment area. The core change lays with detaching the complete cargo lining panels from the substructure in case of a rapid decompression in the cargo area instead of using dedicated blow in panels. In that way, pressure equilibrium can be achieved by air flow through the opened areas around the cargo lining panels rather than through specific blow out / blow in venting areas. The key for this is a self-detaching fastener AIRBUS has developed in an outstanding cooperation with ARCONIC Fastening Systems & Rings (former Alcoa Fastening Systems & Rings) in Kelkheim, Germany. These fasteners are installed to keep the cargo lining panels in place and tight against smoke in case of fire which is one of the main purposes for their use.