Pressure for the aviation industry to achieve net zero carbon goals represent a huge business opportunity for major tier-one manufacturers like GKN Aerospace. The group says that green technology will increasingly dominate its product portfolio and the focus of its many partnerships.
In a press briefing ahead of this year’s Paris Air Show, GKN’s CEO David Paja told reporters that already 90 percent of its approximately $3 billion in annual revenues relates to the decarbonization of the industry. “ICAO’s commitment to achieving net zero by 2050 [at its 41st assembly in October 2022] gave us a detailed path to how to get there in terms of technologies,” he said.
In April, GKN resolved to practice what it preaches by committing to achieving reductions in emissions across its business as defined and verified by the independent Science Based Targets organization. “Previously we have set our own [emissions reduction] targets within the global agreement to stay within the 1.5-degree increase [in the earth’s temperature] but now we will achieve this with external validation,” explained chief technology officer Russ Dunn.
Five years after GKN’s acquisition by investment group Melrose Industries, the company continues to make big investments in both new technologies and the skills base needed to bring them to market. At the time of the March 2018 deal, critics predicted Melrose would pursue an asset-stripping strategy and push for a quick return on its £8 billion ($10.1 billion) spend. This outlook could not have taken account of the Covid pandemic’s profound effect on the aerospace sector, but Paja pointed out that under Melrose’s ownership research and development investments have actually increased by between 25 and 30 percent.
New Global Technology Center to Open in Dallas
The imminent opening of GKN’s fourth Global Technical Center (GTC) in Dallas lends evidence of that commitment. A partnership with Oak Ridge Lab and Northrop Grumman will focus mainly on new additive manufacturing techniques for large military aircraft parts, and, Paja predicted, will give the UK-based company improved access to U.S. defense contracts.
The GTCs concentrate GKN’s technological expertise around centers of excellence. The other facilities are located in Trollhättan, Sweden (specializing in additive manufacturing), Bristol, UK (next-generation wing technology and hydrogen propulsion), and Hoogeveen, The Netherlands (advanced thermoplastics and high-voltage electrification).
The fruits of the investments appear increasingly ready for harvest. For instance, later this year, GKN’s facility in Sweden will start production of a new fan case mount ring for Pratt & Whitney’s PW1500 geared turbofan using new laser metal deposition techniques that significantly reduce waste. Until now, producing this load-carrying part has involved a 440-kg (968-pound) titanium forging from which around 90 percent of the materials were machined out. Now the process will begin with a slim forged ring with flanges created by additive manufacturing.
The laser metal deposition process involves a robot arm depositing titanium wire with a laser used to ensure greater precision. When serial production starts in the fourth quarter of 2023, the process would reduce the number of materials used by 72 percent and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from the manufacturing process by 6.5 tonnes.
According to Dunn, GKN’s strategy will see it expand the use of additive manufacturing, for which the acquisition in 2022 of Permanova significantly enhances its capabilities. GKN will use it to make cases, structures, and ducts. Environmental sustainability apart, the company expects its use will improve the efficiency and robustness of an aerospace supply chain that remains constrained in the post-Covid environment.
Shaping Next-Generation Aircraft
GKN expects to continue supporting key client and partner Airbus in its efforts to define the scope for a next-generation narrowbody airliner to build on its ubiquitous A320 family. It has now delivered all three shipsets of the Wing of Tomorrow technology demonstrator units, which feature a fully-integrated trailing edge that Dunn said is the industry’s largest resin transfer mold unit. Under the European Union-backed CleanSky2 project, it has also delivered the so-called Stunning Fuselage concept to Airbus, which it says represents a one-tonne weight savings in materials.
Seeking to become a key player in efforts to bring new propulsion technologies to market, GKN believes that they could remove 60 percent of CO2 emissions and increase the range and payload of electric aircraft. Dunn mapped out a progression that he expected to see start with the entry into service of the first eVTOL and eSTOL aircraft in 2025, followed by the eventual application of liquid hydrogen for single-aisle airliners by 2040.
This week, eVTOL aircraft developer Supernal, which is part of South Korea’s Hyundai Motor Group, is appointing GKN as a key partner to design and build the wings, booms, and empennage for a four-passenger vehicle it aims to bring to market in 2026, as well as supplying the electrical wiring system and transparencies.
GKN is involved in several other programs in the fast-emerging advanced air mobility sector, including Vertical Aerospace’s VX-4 eVTOL model and Eviation’s Alice fixed-wing aircraft, for which it provides fully integrated wings, empennage, and electrical wiring.
Through the H2Gear program now running through 2026, GKN’s Bristol GTC leads a collaboration to demonstrate a system that could deliver 1MW of power for a 40-seat regional airliner starting in the late 2020s. The powertrain would consist of a cryogenic drive, fuel cells, and energy storage systems for both hydrogen and the electricity produced to power new turboprop engines.
GKN also participates in related technology programs including H2Jet (hydrogen combustion architecture), Ascend (enabling materials and manufacturing), and HyFive (liquid hydrogen fuel systems). It aims to have a flight test proposal for a liquid hydrogen-powered regional aircraft under development by 2029 as the basis for scaling the technology to larger aircraft in the 2030s.
In the meantime, GKN continues preparations to increase its production footprint in China with the opening in the next few months of a new aerostructures factory under a joint venture with the country’s leading aerospace groups Comac and Avic. Plans call for the 861,000-sq-ft facility, located in Jingjiang, to employ around 1,000 people, and in the same city, GKN also makes aircraft transparencies at a new site.