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The aerospace manufacturing industry is, in many ways, one of the most sophisticated commercial manufacturing systems in existence. It uses cutting-edge materials to build highly complex, safety-critical structures and parts. However, it still relies largely upon human skill and dexterity during assembly. There are increasing efforts to introduce automation, but uptake is still relatively low. Why is this and what needs to be done? Some may point to part size or the need for accuracy. However, as with any complex issue, the problems are multifactorial. There are no right or wrong answers to the automation conundrum and indeed there are many contradictions and unsettled aspects still to be resolved. Unsettled Issues on the Viability and Cost-Effectiveness of Automation in Aerospace Manufacturing builds a comprehensive picture of industry views and attitudes backed by technical analysis to answer some of the most pressing questions facing robotic aerospace manufacturing.

A multivariate optimisation code has been modified to represent the application of laminar flow to transport aircraft. This has subsequently been used to obtain optimised configurations for conventional and laminar flow designs. Results are presented, demonstrating the economic benefits of introducing laminar flow technologies to subsonic transport aircraft, with passenger payloads in the 107-517 range. These benefits are seen to improve by a factor of between two and three when the designs are optimised to take maximum advantage of the laminar flow. Sensitivity studies were conducted to investigate the impact of the assumptions used within the project studies on the optimum configurations and operating economics.

Different feasibility studies have been carried out over several years at the Royal Military College of Science (RMCS) into medium military airlifters aimed, in essence at replacing the C-130. The studies, each occupying a nominal 1,500 manhours (but probably 50% more) formed part of the final year of the AeroMechanical B.Eng degree at RMCS. The intention of this paper is to draw together their major findings and deals predominantly with the topics of: cargo hold sizing and body aerodynamics, powerplant selection, weight and performance.

The field of parallel kinematics was viewed as being potentially transformational in manufacturing, having multiple potential advantages over conventional serial machine tools and robots. However, the technology never quite achieved market penetration or broad success envisaged. Yet, many of the inherent advantages still exist in terms of stiffness, force capability, and flexibility when compared to more conventional machine structures. Deployment of Parallel Kinematic Machines in Manufacturing examines why parallel kinematic machines have not lived up to original excitement and market interest and what needs to be done to rekindle that interest. A number of key questions and issues need to be explored to advance the technology further. Click here to access the full SAE EDGETM Research Report portfolio.