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The aim of this paper is to describe how regional airline Flybe has teamed up with Exeter College to provide a four‐year programme in aerospace engineering, plus training for cabin crew and call‐center employees.

The paper focuses on the engineering training and describes the advantages for the airline and participants.

The paper advances the view that the engineering course is the only one of its kind in the UK where apprentices stay in full‐time education to study for a foundation degree combined with hands‐on practical aircraft and associated‐skills experience. It reveals that the program is possible because Flybe is one of only three companies in the UK to achieve the standards required to be officially recognized as an awarding body for its own approved qualifications.

The paper underlines the role the training is providing in helping the airline to expand, even against the background of global downturn.

The paper highlights the critical need for quality training in an industry that relies heavily on having access to a continual supply of highly skilled workers.

The purpose of this paper is to identify and define the certification lifecycle of laser powder bed fusion for aerospace applications from equipment acquisition and installation to production, part acceptance and continuous improvement activities.

A top–down systems engineering approach is performed consisting of concept development, requirements engineering and systems architecting. This approach is taken from the perspective of a production organization.

A certification roadmap is proposed that references industry requirements at the relevant phases of the roadmap. Each phase of the roadmap acts as a decision gate for progression to the next.

Qualification and certification of metal laser powder bed fusion is currently a challenge within the aerospace industry. From an aerospace point of view, the qualification and certification of this relatively new manufacturing process should not have to be any different from traditional manufacturing processes, although with extensive quality control and regulatory oversight. This paper proposes a means for fulfilling these requirements chronologically and provides guidance on ensuring such quality control throughout the manufacturing system lifecycle. This roadmap provides insight into the qualification and certification of laser powder bed fusion for aerospace applications and provides value for future industrial feasibility studies.

Interleaf has launched Intellecte, the first fast‐track solution to the aerospace industry's increasingly complex document‐based information management needs.

Fluids management may be defined as the routeing and confinement of fluids, often under extremes of temperature, pressure and working environment. One of the most critical areas of this technology is the supply and transfer of liquids in aerospace fuel systems. Development of fluids management components for aerospace applications is driven by the requirement for total system integrity within the constraints of cost, space, mass, service conditions and material properties. Designers are challenged to produce novel solutions involving 3D simulation and modelling, finite element analysis and rapid prototyping. Simultaneous engineering is now an integral part of the process and designers must be aware of the latest manufacturing techniques and materials, both metallic and non‐metallic. Final design optimization is confirmed by prototype evaluation, followed by rigorous qualification testing. Explores design concepts and introduces some fluids management components in widespread use today. Reviews recent helicopter and non‐metallic material developments and discusses the future of the technology.

This paper describes the change of dominance, in the provision of engineering education and training, from that of major large scale industry to that of the UK public sector. Using aerospace engineering as an example, it emphasises the need for education to demonstrate more openly and effectively its ability to provide world class support for UK industry. This industry is now dominated by small and medium enterprises and in aerospace, as well as other high technological areas, it is facing increasingly severe competition from overseas. Ways of helping the further and higher education institutions to achieve such support is described by their initiation of the well established Association of Colleges of Aerospace Technology (ACAT) and the relatively new Association of Aerospace Universities (AAU). These bodies comprise mainly aerospace engineering teaching staff but there are some members from industry. Their aims are to continually improve the image, effectiveness and relevance of aerospace education. Details of ACAT and AAU are given in the appendices together with ideas for collaboration with Internet initiatives of Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology (MCB University Press Ltd) and the Aerospace Academic Network (AAN).

Additive manufacturing (AM) offers potential solutions when conventional manufacturing reaches its technological limits. These include a high degree of design freedom, lightweight design, functional integration and rapid prototyping. In this paper, the authors show how AM can be implemented not only for prototyping but also production using different optimization approaches in design including topology optimization, support optimization and selection of part orientation and part consolidation. This paper aims to present how AM can reduce the production cost of complex components such as jet engine air manifold by optimizing the design. This case study also identifies a detailed feasibility analysis of the cost model for an air manifold of an Airbus jet engine using various strategies, such as computer numerical control machining, printing with standard support structures and support optimization.

Parameters that affect the production price of the air manifold such as machining, printing (process), feedstock, labor and post-processing costs were calculated and compared to find the best manufacturing strategy.

Results showed that AM can solve a range of problems and improve production by customization, rapid prototyping and geometrical freedom. This case study showed that 49%–58% of the cost is related to pre- and post-processing when using laser-based powder bed fusion to produce the air manifold. However, the cost of pre- and post-processing when using machining is 32%–35% of the total production costs. The results of this research can assist successful enterprises, such as aerospace, automotive and medical, in successfully turning toward AM technology.

Important factors such as validity, feasibility and limitations, pre-processing and monitoring, are discussed to show how a process chain can be controlled and run efficiently. Reproducibility of the process chain is debated to ensure the quality of mass production lines. Post-processing and qualification of the AM parts are also discussed to show how to satisfy the demands on standards (for surface quality and dimensional accuracy), safety, quality and certification. The original contribution of this paper is identifying the main production costs of complex components using both conventional and AM.

It is important that aeronautical engineers are aware of submissions being made to the Finniston Committee

Normalair‐Garrett Ltd., (Stand No. N31) part of the Westland plc Group of Yeovil, Somerset, is exhibiting a wide range of products which demonstrate the company's diverse capabilities in control systems and precision components for the aerospace industry.