Source | Hawthorn Aero Inc.

Spintech Holdings division Hawthorn Aero Inc. (Miamisburg, Ohio, U.S.), a high-rate production partner for the aerospace and defense industry that manufactures composite airframes and structural assemblies, is investing $16.5 million to expand its Ohio production campus. The project, backed by $2 million in state grants, will grow the company’s facility to approximately 150,000 square feet and add an estimated 279 jobs.

The expansion will increase Hawthorn Aero’s capacity for advanced aerospace structures and integrated defense systems. Initial production will support the AGM-188A Rusty Dagger precision cruise missile, with added capacity also intended for future work on autonomous aircraft, precision-guided munitions, and other next-generation aerospace and defense programs.

Funding comes through two JobsOhio programs: a $1 million Aerospace and Defense Opportunity Grant and a $1 million Economic Development Grant, the latter supporting facility expansion, production equipment, infrastructure and workforce growth.

The expanded facility sits near Wright-Patterson Air Force Base and the Air Force Research Laboratory in Ohio’s Dayton region, an established aerospace and defense manufacturing hub.

Source | LICT

The Aerospace & Aviation Sector Skill Council (AASSC, Bengaluru, India) and Link Institute of Composites Technology (LICT, Halol, Gujarat, India) have signed a 2-year partnership to train aerospace workers in composites manufacturing processes. The agreement pairs AASSC’s certification standards with LICT’s technical training in materials such as prepregs, aiming to build a pipeline of certified workers for India’s aerospace and aviation sector.

LICT and AASSC say the shortage stems in part from how specialized composites work has become — techniques like vacuum infusion setups and handling pre-treated fabrics require hands-on skills most new workers haven’t encountered before entering the field, even as composites make up a growing share of aircraft structures.

Under the partnership, LICT will provide the technical instruction while AASSC issues certification. The initial phase includes three courses (each enrolling 20 students):

• a 24-hour foundational course on aerospace composite materials and manufacturing processes running September through December 2026.
• a 48-hour intermediate course on prepreg materials running October 2026 through January 2027.
• And an 80-hour advanced prepreg materials course running November 2026 through February 2027. 

Graduates will receive diploma certificates issued by AASSC bearing the logos of LICT, AASSC and Skill India. The organizations say additional courses are planned as the partnership continues.

The agreement also includes plans to establish what LICT and AASSC describe as India’s first Centre of Excellence in Composites, intended as a hub for advanced training, research and capability development. 

Separately, AASSC will run Training of Trainer programs under the agreement, with instructor certification valid for 2 years, in line with National Skill Development Corp. (NSDC, New Delhi, India) and India’s Ministry of Civil Aviation guidelines.

Also read, “E-Learning Composites Academy Forms Composites Training Alliance With India’s LICT.”

Defense manufacturing is perhaps the fastest growing market for additive manufacturing today. But how is 3D printing already being used to serve defense needs, and what opportunities are there for newcomers? What materials, tools and processes are significant? And how is AI shaping what AM can deliver? 

Hear it straight from suppliers and manufacturers who are already immersed in this critical supply chain at IMTS—The International Manufacturing Technology Show. 

Join us on Tuesday, September 15, for a half-day workshop tackling everything from 3D printing with refractory tungsten to scalable drone manufacturing to physical AI integrated with additive manufacturing. 

Your ticket for the AM+ Workshop also includes access to the IMTS exhibit halls for the full week:

Register for AM+Workshop: Aerospace & Defense 

Here’s the lineup of speakers and sessions:

• Tungsten 3D Printing - New Manufacturing Capability for Defense Applications | Jonathan Buckley - JEOL USA, Inc.
   
• Affordable Methods for Making Additive Manufacturing More Reliable | Onome Scott-Emuakpor - Hyphen Innovations
   
• Topic TBD | Ed Tackett – EOS North America
   
• The Next Area of Defense Manufacturing: AI-accelerated Slicing and Data Processing Pipeline for LPBF | Thomas Pomorski - Ursa Major
   
• Producible by Design: Agentic Physical AI for Additive Manufacturing, from Factory to Field | Adam Smith - InfinitForm, Inc.
   
• Drones: Full Stack Solutions For Compliant, Scalable Production Using Stratasys Additive Manufacturing | Conrad Smith - Stratasys

Whether you’re AM-curious or a current user interested in entering this market we hope to see you there. 

Source | Airbus

On Aug. 19, Airbus (Toulouse, France) announced the start of construction for the 6,221-square-meter extension to its Belfast A220 wing facility. The project will support production ramp-up and is part of a wider multi-million-pound site investment plan.

Scheduled for completion in the first half of 2028, the extension will expand the facility’s wing manufacturing footprint and advanced composite capabilities. It will house a third autoclave alongside specialized wing tooling and cranage to support the A220 production ramp-up to 13 aircraft/month by 2028. 

Alongside the extension, Airbus will continue to modernize site infrastructure.

“Enhancing our wing facilities is a direct investment in the future of A220 wing production here in Belfast, building the capacity required to meet the growing demand for this aircraft,” says Anthony Rouse, head of Airbus Belfast plant and site. “This commitment is also reflected in our ongoing skills development, including bringing onboard 40 new apprentices who will start in September this year [2026].”

As the exclusive global manufacturer of A220 wings, Belfast is central to the A220 program. The site is internationally recognized for pioneering the patented resin transfer infusion (RTI) manufacturing process used to construct the A220’s advanced composite wings. This technology makes the structure approximately 10% lighter than traditional aluminum equivalents, directly reducing fuel burn and carbon emissions.

For related content, read “Airbus Presses Forward on Next-Gen Narrowbody as Boeing Timeline Slips.”

Source | AkzoNobel Aerospace Coatings

AkzoNobel Aerospace Coatings (Waukegan, Illinois) and TAP Air Portugal have successfully completed operational trials of a lighter aircraft basecoat technology that can reduce coating weight by up to 26 kilograms per aircraft, thus supporting the airline’s ongoing focus on operational efficiency, fuel savings and lower emissions.

The trials, carried out using AkzoNobel’s Aerobase UPD formulation, demonstrated that the system is able to reduce total basecoat film thickness by 36% compared with a traditional two-coat application process. The basecoat also maintains durability, appearance and finish quality standards required for commercial aviation operations.

Field testing on a TAP Air Portugal A320 aircraft achieved a 24-kilogram weight reduction. Following these results, a second A320 has also been recoated, with rollout plans being put in place to extend the lightweight basecoat across the fleet. The lighter coating technology is expected to contribute to annual fuel savings of approximately 428.5 tonnes, with an estimated reduction of approximately 1,353 tonnes of CO₂ emissions annually across the fleet.

The Aerobase UPD formulation builds on AkzoNobel Aerospace Coatings’ Aerobase platform through formulation and application improvements designed to improve film build control, sag resistance and process repeatability in real-world paint shop operations.

Using a validated cross-coat application technique, Aerobase UPD is designed to achieve the required hiding power and finish quality through a single basecoat application cycle, eliminating the need for a second full basecoat layer and associated flash-off stages. The simplified application process also provides operational productivity benefits for applicators by removing one whole paint cycle.

The enhanced formulation also provides approximately 40% greater sag resistance compared with the traditional two-layer system for improved consistency and repeatability across varying operational paint shop conditions and applicator experience levels.

Aerobase UPD is certified to AMS3095 standards for global mixed-fleet maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) operations and integrates with the upgraded Aerobase activator and existing Aerobase hardeners, enabling straightforward implementation within existing paint shop processes.

Source | AkzoNobel Aerospace Coatings

AkzoNobel Aerospace Coatings (Waukegan, Illinois) has completed a major phase of its €22 million investment at its Pamiers production site in France, a development project designed to expand capacity, strengthen technical capabilities and support the site’s environmental objectives.

The investment supports AkzoNobel’s long-term focus on operational excellence, while enhancing local support for customers across the growing aerospace coatings sector. The upgraded site will increase AkzoNobel’s European production capacity, improve workflow efficiency and support the continued development of next-generation coating technologies.

A key part of the project is the construction of a new warehouse facility, adding more than 2,000 square meters of storage space for raw materials and finished products. Advanced temperature-controlled storage cells have been installed to help ensure optimal product preservation and more efficient stock management.

AkzoNobel has also built a new 638-square-meter waste management facility equipped with next-gen sprinkler systems featuring zoned automatic detection and controlled intervention technology for enhanced operational safety.

Alongside the site expansion, AkzoNobel has modernized its Quality Control and Production Services to strengthen product quality and operational performance. Upgrades to the Quality Control department include four new application cabins and a dedicated cabin for chromate products with specialized insulation and secure airlock access. A further eight new laboratory benches with integrated extraction hoods have also been implemented — increasing Quality Control capacity by 166%.

Production capabilities at the site have also been enhanced through the installation of precision weighing systems, additional paint tank and a new automatic beads mill dedicated to non-chromate coatings. A redesigned workspace layout and optimized work organization have further optimized production flow, operational flexibility and manufacturing efficiency.

According to Arnaud Charmetant, site manager at AkzoNobel, “We are not only strengthening manufacturing capabilities, but also creating a more sustainable and future-ready site that will help accelerate the development of advanced aerospace coating solutions.”

The overall development project remains on track, with final construction and equipment installation expected to be completed by the end of 2026. An official inauguration event is planned for 2027.

Sources | Wisk Aero (top), Business Wire (center) and Archer Aviation (bottom)

The Boeing Company (Arlington, Va., U.S.) and Archer Aviation (Santa Clara, Calif., U.S.) have signed definitive agreements in which Archer will acquire Boeing’s Wisk Aero (Mountain View, Calif., U.S.), SkyGrid (Austin, Texas, U.S.) and Insitu (Bingen, Wash., U.S.) subsidiaries. The deal will combine complementary capabilities developed over decades in autonomy, electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft and unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), and will create an end-to-end physical AI platform for aerospace and defense.

Wisk, SkyGrid and Insitu have pioneered and incubated core autonomous flight technologies for the future that, in combination with Archer’s air taxi, UAS and AI technologies, will “bring new and innovative solutions to the market,” Wisk Aero reports. These companies, boasting nearly two million combined flight hours, are expected to bring a deep autonomy foundation to Archer’s ZEE AI platform. “This is the next big step forward in becoming a diversified platform, rapidly growing our revenue base and bringing scale to our business,” notes Archer founder and CEO Adam Goldstein. 

In conjunction with the transaction, Boeing and Archer are entering into a collaboration and technology-sharing arrangement through which Boeing will retain access to the Wisk core autonomous flight technology for its current and next-gen commercial and defense aircraft. The transaction allows Boeing to retain strategic upside through its stake in Archer and simultaneously focus current and future investments into Boeing’s core businesses.

Wisk has designed, built and flown six generations of eVTOL aircraft, amassing 1,700-plus flight tests. Over the past 16 years, its team team has developed autonomy capabilities powered by a next-gen flight-control computer, sensor suite and radar system designed for certification in civil and potential defense markets.

Insitu designs, develops and manufactures uncrewed aircraft systems (UAS) used in intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance. Its product portfolio spans high-performance, cost-effective, resilient, VTOL-capable UAS and AI-enabled software solutions. With offices in the U.S., Australia, the U.K. and the UAE, Insitu has manufactured and fielded more than 3,500 UAS and provides operations and support networks in every hemisphere of the globe.

SkyGrid has built a ground-based, aircraft-agnostic air traffic management solution. SkyGrid enables safe integration, scalable automation and coordinated traffic management that is necessary for commercialization across the aviation ecosystem.

Source | ATLAS 

CompSTLar is leading the organization of the ATLAS Cluster event, “Wings of Change: Navigating the Future of Sustainable Aerostructures,” set for Sept. 17, 2026, at the Aragon Institute of Technology (ITA, Zaragoza, Spain). The 1-day workshop will draw together researchers, industry representatives and other stakeholders working across the composite aerostructures value chain. Though it is hosted in person, the event will also be livestreamed via MS Teams, extending participation to composites and aerospace professionals across Europe and beyond.

The ATLAS Cluster — Advanced Technologies for Lightweight Aerostructures and Sustainability — links five Horizon Europe projects focused on advanced composites and sustainable aerostructures: CompSTLar, TOSCA, PLEIADES, pAIramid and HyperMorpH. Organizers say the workshop is designed to gather researchers, industry representatives and experts to exchange knowledge and discuss the future of lightweight, sustainable and intelligent aerostructures. 

The day opens with a keynote from Inés Villa Martínez, cluster manager for the Aragonian Aerospace Cluster (AERA, Zaragoza, Spain), addressing priorities, challenges and pathways for the future of aerospace structures. Four themed sessions follow:

• Session 1: Cruising Towards Circularity — recyclable resin systems, conductive bio-based composites and multicycle recycling of vitrimers, including a keynote from Berta Gonzalvo, research director at AITIIP Technology Centre (Zaragoza, Spain), on enzymatic recycling of composite laminates.
• Session 2: Autopilot Assembly — automated fiber placement (AFP), machine vision inspection, photonic sensing and continuous carbon fiber additive manufacturing (AM) for aerospace parts.
• Session 3: Navigating the Digital Sky — digital twins, physics-informed AI, digital threads and multiscale reliability models supporting aerospace certification.
• Session 4: Landing Innovations — a roadmap discussion and a panel on integrating the five projects’ innovations for Europe’s future aircraft, followed by a networking session.

Registration details and the full agenda are available through ITA’s event page. 

Source | Avanco Composites

Avanco Composites (Herford, Germany) has developed a press-fitted carbon fiber-reinforced polymer (CFRP) retaining sleeve designed to secure permanent magnets in high-speed rotors without adhesives or added thermal stress. The company demonstrated the design in a project with partner WEKA Elektrowerkzeuge (Neubulach, Germany), and positions the sleeve for rotor applications spanning the automotive, industrial and aerospace sectors.

In a LinkedIn post, Avanco reports that the sleeve’s proprietary press-fitting process generates high preload against the rotor, securing the magnets and preventing lift-off at high rotational speeds. The process introduces no thermal stress during assembly and requires no adhesive bonding to hold the sleeve in place, with the design suited to rotor diameters ranging from 30 to 300 millimeters. Learn more on Avanco’s LinkedIn page.

Source (All Images) | Axalp Technologies

Axalp Technologies (Olten, Switzerland) has designed and fabricated custom folding propeller blades for Dufour Aerospace’s (Zurich) Aero-200 tilt-wing aircraft. The blades are made of carbon fiber-reinforced plastic (CFRP) and produced in-house by Axalp.

For Dufour’s folding propeller mechanism, Axalp designed an optimized blade structure to meet tight constraints on geometry and weight. The company’s in-house software tools allowed the design team to evaluate the full tradespace so the propeller could be optimized at the system level rather than in isolated areas. Axalp’s rapid prototyping capabilities then produced a batch of the custom blades to meet Dufour’s ground and flight testing schedule.

The composites-intensive Aero-200 in flight.

Dufour’s folding propeller system for the Aero-200 was developed to improve cruise efficiency during long-range missions. Large propellers are needed for hover and vertical takeoff, but they create additional drag once the aircraft transitions into forward flight. The Aero-200 addresses this by folding its outer propellers during cruise while the inboard pair continue providing forward thrust, a configuration intended to maximize aerodynamic efficiency and extend operational range.

“We’re proud to support the optimization and fabrication of this folding propeller system,” states Axalp in a LinkedIn post. The aircraft platform is aimed at medical transport, search and rescue, and other missions.

CW has reported on several other composite components across Dufour’s Aero-200 (formerly Aero2) platform beyond the propeller blades. The aircraft’s all-composite airframe is supplied by Connova AG, while Aerolite AG produces composite structural components for the nacelles and tail, and WAG Wernli AG produces composite brackets using sheet molding compound (SMC) materials, replacing the aircraft’s original aluminum versions. 

Source | Cambium

ApexFrame 5000 is a phthalonitrile-based film adhesive recently launched by Cambium (El Segundo, Calif., U.S.). It is engineered for high-temperature, nonstructural bonding of polymer films and metallic foils. It can also be used to bond fiber-reinforced composites, though it is currently optimized for film/foil bonding applications rather than structural composite bonding. Cambium is developing a dedicated structural adhesive variant for that use case, expected in the near future

ApexFrame 5000 delivers sustained operational performance up to 315°C, with short-duration performance up to 427°C. The system is solvent-free, room temperature stable and requires no freezer storage, reducing logistics complexity and total cost of ownership for manufacturers.

“A customer came to us with a challenge that existing adhesive technologies couldn’t solve: bonding performance in extreme thermal environments for demanding aircraft and drone applications,” explains Cambium CTO James Griffin. “By combining our materials expertise with a rapid development approach, we delivered ApexFrame 5000, a high-temperature laminating adhesive built for defense applications.”

The launch reflects Cambium’s core operating model, which is to take a material from discovery through qualified production at speed and scale. This direct path from formulation to production-ready material is increasingly critical for customers in aerospace, defense and space, the company acknowledges. 

ApexFrame 5000 is available now as an unsupported film adhesive in standard roll widths of 12' (300 mm) and 38' (965 mm), with additional widths and carrier options available upon request.

Source (All Images) | Cambium

Cambium (El Segundo, California, U.S.) was founded in 2019 by CEO Simon Waddington and CMO Stephan Herrera, both formerly of biotech firm Evolva. The company currently has 250 employees and develops advanced polymers and composite materials for aerospace, defense and other high-performance sectors, but is also targeting broader markets. Its most recent messaging notes that Cambium integrates AI-driven materials discovery, rapid product development, industrialized qualification and flexible manufacturing into a single operating system, compressing time and cost from invention to qualified production.

Shortly after its founding it established this domestic production as well as defense-related R&D support including a completed contract with the U.S. Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division (NAWCWD) and a DARPA collaboration aimed at replacing structural titanium with ultra-lightweight polymers.

In December 2025, Cambium acquired SHD Composites (Sleaford, U.K. and Mooresville, N.C., U.S.), a company well known for its innovative, high-quality products, agility, customer support and fast response time. Now a Cambium company, SHD has maintained its leadership, adding previous Cambium board director Brett Schneider as president of SHD and Cambium Composites. SHD has also maintained its production sites, including at its U.K. and U.S. headquarters, an additional U.S. facility in Oklahoma and one in Slovenia.

In January 2026, Cambium closed a $100 million Series B funding round led by 8VC (Austin, Texas, U.S.), with participation from Lockheed Martin Ventures, Veteran Ventures Capital and MVP Ventures. With SHD Composites, Cambium has now established a global innovation and manufacturing supply chain, and in 2026, SHD Composites announced a slate of new developments:

• Wide-format UD prepreg, film coating lines, accelerating development cycles and supporting more ambitious composite designs.
• MTC521FR, a new flame-retardant clear epoxy prepreg for visually critical carbon fiber components requiring certified fire performance.
• MTC700 toughened epoxy prepreg with capability up to 200°C and a dual-cure profile to meet motorsport and other high-performance manufacturers’ needs.
• Bio-based, FST-compliant FR308 resin for next-gen aircraft seating with Safran Group and others in the EcoSuite project.
• Quadrupling of its Mooresville, N.C. facility in the U.S.
• CEM101 cyanate ester prepreg with enhanced service temperature and dielectric performance for aerospace, space, defense and motorsport.
• SFX740-LS, SFX740-LW and SFX740-HF surface films for lightning strike protection, low-temperature out-of-autoclave (OOA) cure and no postprocessing after molding.

These show recurring themes of high performance, ease of processing and accelerated development cycles for more ambitious composite designs in aerospace, space, defense and motorsport. These are indeed the central pillars to Cambium’s approach. But it has a vision for much more.

From biotech to bio-enabled composites

Chief informatics officer Tim Gardner’s journey reflects that of Cambium to some degree — moving from biotech to its current “bio-enabled” and AI-focused approach to speed development and innovation in composites and other advanced materials. It also helps to provide a landscape and frame of reference for Cambium, as there really hasn’t been a company like this in composites before.

Cambium’s technical capabilities.

“I joined Cambium in 2024, and am relatively new to composites,” Gardner explains, “having spent most of my career in biotech. I actually started in mechanical and aerospace engineering, with an interest in robotics and automation. But I ended up building out capability to biosynthesize chemicals for a company that was genetically engineering yeast to produce oils from sugarcane. We scaled that up to a 1.2 million-liter production volume [tank capacity] in Brazil, but the company struggled economically because it’s hard for bio-based materials to compete with the cost of oil-based products.”

There are other factors that make bio-based materials production challenging, Gardner adds. “Biology is good at exquisite design of molecules that operate in low temperature or room temperature [RT] regimes, but it’s difficult to engineer those materials for tailored performance because that requires redesigning cellular enzymes and metabolism — a very hard problem. For example, some of the compounds relevant to high-performance applications like aerospace are toxic to microbes or involve oxygen-sensitive biochemistry that doesn’t work under normal bioprocessing conditions.”

By the mid-2000s, says Gardner, “I had started to get more interested in the software that underpins effective R&D organizations. What makes organizations capable of being agile and effective at discovering solutions to technical problems? I ended up starting a software-as-a-service company in 2014 that developed cloud-based software for experimental and process design, data integration and analytics.” He then sold that company to Siemens and spent the next 3 years at a large company in biotech. “Along the way, I reconnected with the cofounders of Cambium — Stephan Herrera [now chief marketing officer] and Simon Waddington, CEO. We all came from a similar background — bioproduction of chemicals and biosynthesis — and I had gotten to know them through that part of my career. I reached out to Stephan 3 years ago because I saw what they were doing. At the time, Cambium included ‘Biomaterials’ in its name, but they were really a materials company trying to drive extreme performance in aerospace applications. I was inspired because that was essentially where I started my career, and I had always wanted to get back to spacecraft and pushing the boundaries of what was possible.”

Cambium combines biotech, digital technologies/ simulation, machine learning (ML) and AI to accelerate solutions in advanced materials with a focus on manufacturability and affordability while maintaining extreme performance.

The co-founders’ thesis for Cambium was very simple, he says. “There hadn’t really been any novel polymer classes commercialized since the 1980s. They recognized this huge innovation gap in polymer chemistry and also that biology has the potential to create and access trillions of novel chemicals, that wouldn’t be possible otherwise, via its exquisite chemical synthesis capability. Thus, there are underserved opportunities — particularly in extreme performance applications in defense, aerospace, automotive and elsewhere — where biology might hold the key to creating these advanced materials.”

Gardner was also enthused by Cambium’s approach. “Because it was bio-enabled — that could mean bio or synthesis, it was open — they would use whatever methods and technologies were needed to get advanced materials to viable commercial products. It also included a blend of the things that interest me: aerospace, biotech, digital technologies, AI and machine learning [ML].” These all came together as Gardner joined Cambium to be its CIO and develop the company’s AI and ML capabilities in computational chemistry, predictive modeling and quantum and atomistic simulation for material design.

Once at Cambium, Gardner notes his close collaboration with the third key player in the company’s formation, Andy Guenthner. “He’s the scientific founder and worked for the Air Force Research Lab and the Navy, with 30 years of experience in polymer chemistry, polymer physics and material design for extreme performance,” he explains. “Cambium recruited Andy to breathe life into its technology. He was then able to partner with a chief scientific officer at the NAWCWD in China Lake, and together they went through a variety of candidates and discovered these novel classes of phthalonitriles [PN].” The result was Cambium’s first commercial product for composites (see “Cambium launches ApexShield 1000 …”).

“Since then,” says Gardner, “Andy and I have worked to expand the foundations of the AI and quantum chemistry simulation capabilities that he had started, and to build the general AI capabilities supporting Cambium’s overall operations.”

PN and CMC

Gardner notes that PN formulations were developed decades ago by the U.S. Navy. “They just didn’t get developed to the point of commercial utility.” PN resins have been in development by the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) since the 1980s but sat in a chronic underinvestment gap without the funding required to scale up from lab-scale monomer to manufacturable, qualifiable and cost-effective products. Although early PN formulations used the OSHA-regulated carcinogen methylenedianiline (MDA) as a curing agent, later systems moved away in favor of alternative aromatic diamines. The main issue was processability.

Cambium’s opportunity came when defense funding priorities shifted. U.S. hypersonics spending had lapsed after the X-51 program wound down around 2013. But urgency returned after Russia’s 2018 unveiling of hypersonic weapons and China’s 2021 hypersonic glide vehicle test. These applications require lightweight, high-temperature materials like ceramic matrix composite (CMC) for structures and thermal protective shielding/thermal protection systems (TPS).

Cambium worked with NAWCWD to develop a combination of bio-based core molecules as precursors and fused those with phthalonitrile (PN) chemistry to create a novel polymer that was easier to manufacture into composites for high-temp applications.

“Andy and NAWCWD discovered a combination of bio-based core molecules as precursors, and fused them with PN chemistry,” says Gardner. “The result was a novel, high-performance thermoset polymer that could withstand temperatures above 400°C but were processable, with the right viscosity to be manufactured at near RT. They had great potential for composite TPS and possibly structures as well.”

With further development, this became ApexShield 1000, he explains, which can operate at extreme temperatures and also be heat treated to form carbon fiber-reinforced carbon (C/C) with a roughly 70% reduction in process time (see “High-temp resin eliminates hypersonic composite part bottlenecks” ). Such carbide CMC are increasingly sought after for high performance at temperatures above 1600°C, but have traditionally been very expensive and required months to manufacture. Unlike metals and ceramics that weaken when heated, C/C gets stronger as temperature increases up to ~2200°C, allowing it to withstand intense aerodynamic stresses.

Cambium has developed ApexShield resin systems to enable faster production of ablative carbon/carbon (C/C) composites for applications like rocket motor nozzles, hypersonic leading edges and re-entry nose tips.

C/C composites also function well as high-temperature ablatives. Unlike polymeric ablators (such as carbon fiber-reinforced phenolic), which rely heavily on the resin’s decomposition into gas, C/C composites rely primarily on thermochemical ablation, sublimation and radiative cooling. They undergo a controlled degradation to absorb, block and dissipate extreme thermal energy for applications like spacecraft atmospheric re-entry nose tips, hypersonic leading edges, TPS and rocket motor nozzles.

Cambium has also released ApexShield 3000, a PN coating engineered for metallic and composite substrates operating at extreme temperatures, such as in hypersonic flight. It enables electromagnetic interference (EMI) and radio frequency (RF) shielding for electronics and commercial programs requiring wavelength-tunable performance.

“That first molecule that Cambium developed is not a structural composite material,” says Gardner, “but it serves a valuable role in TPS because it’s easier to manufacture and able to achieve the target performance of ablatives and C/C. That’s really key because it gives the U.S. a path for a resilient supply chain and rapid production [see “U.S. Navy contract to advance Cambium C/C composites for hypersonics”]. Part production drops from 6-9 months down to 1 month. That was one of Cambium’s first novel products, but there are plenty of others now, either released or in the pipeline for commercialization.”

Use of AI and Schrödinger tools, inverse design

This issue of tackling processability and scalability while maintaining or tailoring performance is complexity. “It’s figuring out how to meet all those factors at the same time,” notes Gardner. “You solve one and you break another, but there are typically 10 factors, not two. If you iterate through that process sequentially and serially, in the traditional way, it takes years and you can’t possibly test all the things you want to. That’s where AI, ML and simulation come in. Cambium can now screen millions, if not billions, of molecules.”

Cambium’s fusion AI architecture enables scalable, continuous training on any type of data (chemical, physical, biological) and is being advanced to enable both forward (molecule to property) and inverse design (desired property to output candidate molecules and formulations).

“We’ve also been developing inverse design, where you specify the properties you want and with the help of AI and simulation you get a set of perhaps 20 molecules that would likely have those properties. It’s the Holy Grail for this type of molecular design,” he continues. “We have an AI model, a type of transformer neural network, that is getting close to being able to do that.”

As explained in a CW article with Schrödinger (New York, N.Y., U.S.), inverse design/development is a key part of the materials informatics (MI) paradigm shift, where ML and AI are used to dramatically reduce the time required to develop new materials and optimize how they are processed (see “Schrödinger advances MI for faster development of next-gen composites”): “But it goes even further, not only accelerating the forward direction of innovation — realizing properties for suggested candidate materials — but also enabling inverse development, where novel materials are suggested based on input of desired properties.”

Cambium uses a variety of in-house and commercial products for its computational capabilities, including Schrödinger tools for atomistic simulation, such as this 33,000-atom simulated DGEBA-propylene diamine network at 98% cure.

Cambium uses Schrödinger’s tools for atomistic simulation and quantum simulation, says Gardner, “but we’re agnostic with our computational capability, the same as we are about the source of our molecules. We’ll take whatever works.” He explains that quantum simulation is typically looking at one molecule, the arrangement and energy states of its electrons and how these influence molecular properties.

“The atomistic tool is used in simulating formulations at the scale of maybe 500 molecules — equivalent to roughly 20,000 or 30,000 atoms, depending on the molecule,” he continues. “You can then simulate what happens physically, and from that calculate properties. For example, we can screen and identify processability properties like fluid flow, ease of handling and tackiness while maintaining strength and toughness at high temperature.”

“But there are certain things that simulation cannot predict yet because there’s not sufficient experimental data or physics modeling capability. For example, a fast quantum simulation takes 12 hours for one molecule, which means analyzing a million molecules just isn’t possible. That’s where ML and AI come in. Instead of literally using physics to predict how things are going to work, we use AI to produce a statistical approximation. It’s the same as using ChatGPT or Claude. Those AI models don’t literally have cognition; they have a statistical approximation of the world’s knowledge and use that to predict the most likely response. Cambium is using AI to do the same thing. We collapse all of the physics into a statistical prediction of how a material is going to behave to complete in seconds what it would take 12, 24 or 72 hours on a typical atomistic simulation. You don’t necessarily know why that molecule gives you the desired outcome, or you may only partially understand it, but that doesn’t necessarily matter if you can get an accurate prediction nonetheless.”

Cambium’s screening of >860 candidates for PN resins showed that the commonly perceived trade-off between ease of processing (low viscosity) and thermal performance (char yield) has many exceptions.

Everything in science is an approximation, notes Gardner. “It’s just a question of how perfect an approximation. The neural networks we use can map between molecules and properties in both directions. We do a really good job from molecule and mixture formulation to property. Actually, most of the AI technologies to date have only worked on predicting what a molecule does. We can predict what a formulation does, and that’s a key advance. Going from property to molecule, we’re using this multimodal architecture of property and molecule fused together, and we’ve succeeded in beating property prediction benchmarks. We’re getting closer and closer.”

Target markets, moving beyond aero and defense

These accelerated development capabilities are first being applied to resin development in composites, says Gardner, but he adds the most exciting thing for Cambium these days is the acquisition of SHD Composites due to the path it provides toward wider application of the materials being developed.

“Lightweight materials for automotive body panels, for example, must compete with steel’s fast stamping of parts, fatigue resistance and all these additional properties that enable safety performance. That’s pretty hard to achieve all together, so we still have a way to go before we can replace automotive steel at scale. But a lot of the technologies we’ve developed to push toughness at extreme temperatures are finding immediate application, such as for thermal insulation—foams that are fire resistant—or side impact panels that can withstand thousands of pounds of intrusion force yet are lightweight. We’re increasingly turning our AI technologies towards those types of goals.”

Cambium’s acquisition of SHD Composites opens new markets and growth opportunities.

He notes SHD Composites has been serving those types of needs across a range of markets, including aircraft interiors, marine, motorsport and drones, as well as tooling for composites production. “SHD serves myriad carbon fiber and glass fiber composite applications and brings exposure for our AI and computational capabilities in these more conventional performance problems and their manufacturability needs.”

He cites Tesla’s July 2026 announcement about polymer body panels for its Cybercab vehicles as an example. The company will use a reaction injection molding (RIM) process that integrates color pigment into the polyurethane (PU) polymer mix injected into the mold, eliminating paint and speeding up subsequent clearcoating to shrink Cybercab paint cycles from hours to minutes. “This is something we had already envisioned as part of a future casting exercise, but we also see the industry’s interest to embed sensors and other multifunctionality. I see tremendous opportunity for Cambium and SHD Composites to create these new technologies for the consumer, where the limitation is often manufacturing more than performance. We’re not trying to replace auto body panels tomorrow, but we still see a wide range of opportunities for growth.”

But what about defense? “We began by seeking niche markets where high-performance materials are critical, but we are absolutely seeking the broadest set of markets, verticals and types of buyers,” says Gardner, “because we’re an advanced materials company, not a defense company.”

In July 2026, Cambium launched SentinelOps, a tunable solution for laser and directed energy protection that maintains high-fidelity vision needed by commercial and military pilots, firefighters and others. In September, it launched ApexFrame 5000, a PN-based laminating film adhesive for non-structural bonding of polymer films and metallic foils for sustained service up to 315°C and excursions to 427°C.

“Defense is a necessity, but it’s also a market that can tolerate costly materials initially and be the first buyer, then help advance R&D, bringing the cost curve down where you can access commercial markets. We have embraced defense for the purpose of filling the gap in advanced material development but we’d love our commercial markets to be 100 times bigger than our defense markets. The economic reality is that defense is actually a small market in terms of volume, and not something that would support all of our long-term ambitions.”

Cambium helped USCRPL’s Daybreak rocket reach space, using its ApexShield 1000 material to build the “boattail,” an aerodynamic shroud for the rocket nozzle.

What about more products for CMC? “The demand for high-temperature materials is being driven by rocket motors, TPS for space vehicles and satellites certainly,” says Gardner. “There are growing opportunities there, and we will continue to pursue those markets through new resins and new processing methods, including with different fibers. We also do a lot of prototyping of parts to help our customers understand the potential of such developments. For example, we helped with the University of Southern California Rocket Propulsion Laboratory’s [USCRPL] Daybreak rocket mission to teach them how to build these parts.”

“We will keep pursuing those opportunities, but we’re looking at other markets as well, which could include automotive,” adds Gardner, “but adhesives and coatings also offer a large area of opportunity, and there are other areas where we are already working.”

Reimagining the future of composites

What will Cambium look like in 5 years? “We want to be the world’s premier and largest supplier of prepregs, composites and advanced materials,” says Gardner. When asked if that means current industry leaders will have to take a back seat, he explains, “The advances we’re making have to happen. Achieving affordability and manufacturability has been a real obstacle for composites, and it’s not just defense markets and commercial consumers that need these solutions, but also the parts manufacturers and supply chains.” 

He explains how the acquisition of SHD Composites is part of this vision. “They have been so customer focused and agile, which is why they’ve been so successful. Building on our shared passion for innovation, we’re learning from their core culture and experience to shape Cambium’s global culture toward maximum customer responsiveness, agility, speed and delivery on customer needs from material design all the way through part prototyping. We’re reimagining the future and already changing what’s possible.”

Read More

Source | Getty Images (top) and Yannick Willemin (bottom)

Cambium’s $100 Million Play: Fundraising Engineering Meets Composites Scale

Cambium's $100 million raise, acquisition of SHD Composites signal a bold strategy blending AI-driven materials innovation with proven composites production expertise.

Source | Cellsius, Airframer

Cellsius (Zurich, Switzerland), a non-profit association of ETH Zurich students, is preparing its H2-Sling aircraft for a first test flight, pending clearance from Switzerland’s Federal Office of Civil Aviation. In Airframer, the H2-Sling is described as a hydrogen-powered aircraft built with carbon fiber pressure tanks and a composite cowling. Longer term, the team hopes to use it to cross the Alps. 

The aircraft draws power from a hydrogen fuel cell system, in which hydrogen and oxygen react across a membrane to generate electricity and heat, leaving water as the only byproduct. Two pressure tanks mounted beneath the wings hold the gaseous hydrogen; Cellsius, on its project page, identifies these as cylindrical Type 4 tanks, each capable of storing hydrogen at 700 bar. Airframer puts the capacity at 2.6 kilograms per tank, giving the aircraft a range of around 200 kilometers.

The tanks are covered by an aerodynamic cowling that Cellsius says is about 2 meters long and made from a composite material, adding only a few kilograms to the aircraft despite its size. The powertrain is integrated into a modified Sling High Wing kit airframe supplied by Sling Aircraft (Eikenhof, South Africa), work Cellsius describes as an extension of its earlier e-Sling battery-electric demonstrator.

To keep the fuel cell’s reaction stable, the system supplies more hydrogen than it consumes; the surplus is recirculated from the anode outlet back to the inlet by a MINK MH blower donated to ETH Zurich by Busch Vacuum Solutions (Maulburg, Germany). 

Read more about hydrogen fuel cell technology on CW.

Source | Cirrus Aircraft

Cirrus Aircraft’s (Duluth, Minn., U.S.) G3 Vision Jet has received type certificate approval from Brazil’s National Civil Aviation Agency (ANAC). This approval enables delivery and operation of the newest G3 Vision Jet in Brazil, bringing enhanced comfort, capability and technology to owners and operators throughout the region.

The highly composites-intensive G3 Vision Jet represents the latest evolution of the single-engine Personal Jet, building on the aircraft’s legacy of innovation with a reimagined cabin, expanded seating capacity, advanced flight deck technologies and more than 30 refinements designed to create a new era of smart and safe personal aviation (read “Cirrus G3 Vision Jet ... builds upon years of composites and safety expertise”).

The G3 Vision Jet introduces a fully reimagined interior with premium materials and expanded seating accommodations for seven people (six adults and one child). A redesigned third-row bench seat increases mission flexibility while maintaining the spacious cabin environment that has become a hallmark of the Vision Jet. Enhanced ergonomics, integrated tray tables, personal device mounting locations and refined cabin finishes further elevate passenger comfort and productivity.

In the flight deck, the G3 Vision Jet adds new capabilities designed to reduce pilot workload and increase situational awareness. New features include ATC Datalink for text-based communication with air traffic control, Automatic Database Updates through Cirrus IQ PRO Advanced, Alerts-Linked Checklists, Taxiway Routing and 3D SafeTaxi airport guidance. The aircraft also features Cirrus Spectra Wingtips and exterior lighting that enhance visibility and ramp presence.

The G3 Vision Jet continues to deliver the safety technologies that have distinguished the platform, including the Cirrus Airframe Parachute System (CAPS) and Safe Return Emergency Autoland. Combined with the Perspective Touch+ avionics suite, these systems help provide confidence and peace of mind for pilots and passengers alike.

ANAC certification further strengthens Cirrus’ commitment to serving customers in Brazil and supporting the continued growth of personal aviation in the region.

This SpacePrinter was developed in partnership with the Institute of Polymer and Composites (IFPT) at Hamburg University of Technology (TUHH). Source | IFPT, CompriseTec GmbH

The Industrialized Additive Manufacturing Hub Hamburg (IAMHH e.V., Hamburg, Germany), an organization that connects industry, research, academia and policymakers to establish additive manufacturing (AM) as a key industrial technology, has added CompriseTec GmbH (Hamburg) as a member of its network. CompriseTec brings expertise in thermoplastics, thermosets, fiber-reinforced composites (FRP), rubber and hybrid materials, spanning material structures and properties as well as processing, process engineering and economic considerations.

CompriseTec is currently engaged in a range of R&D projects, including materials and processes for polymer 3D printing and glass- and carbon-fiber-reinforced components for the aerospace and automotive industries. Its work also extends to bio-based thermoplastics, lightweight components, microstructured surfaces and manufacturing technologies for FRP parts.

In a LinkedIn post on the subject, IAMHH e.V. says it looks forward to connecting CompriseTec’s expertise in materials, processes and AM with the broader network.

Hamburg-based IAMHH serves as a regional hub for AM in Northern Germany, providing a point of contact for companies and organizations looking to engage with the region’s AM ecosystem. Its activities include knowledge exchange, industry events, webinars and collaborative projects that support the development and industrial application of this manufacturing process.

Source | Continuous Composites video

Continuous Composites (CCI, Coeur D’Alene, Idaho, U.S.) has been awarded a Phase II Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) contract with the U.S. Navy to further develop its Continuous Fiber 3D Printing (CF3D) technology for multifunctinal unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) structures. 

The program focuses on embedding electrical conductors directly within composite structures, enabling load-bearing components that also serve as integrated power distribution systems. This approach eliminates the need for traditional wire harnesses and simplifies system architecture in UAV platforms.

During Phase I, CCI demonstrated the ability to co-print conductive elements within fiberglass-reinforced composite panels, including copper wiring and fiber optics, and evaluated their impact on structural performance through mechanical and electrical testing. Results showed minimal impact on mechanical integrity, validating the feasibility of integrating functional materials within composite laminates.

Building on these findings, Phase II will advance the structural integration of embedded conductors within composite architectures. The effort will focus on incorporating higher-capacity conductive pathways into load-bearing components while maintaining mechanical performance and electrical isolation through controlled material placement. Emphasis will be placed on ensuring that structural integrity is preserved as functionality is introduced to enable composite components that carry both load and power without compromising performance.

The result is a structurally integrated power system for more modular UAV architectures. In field operations, damaged components can be rapidly replaced while reducing the risk of damaging wires and connectors. This decreases repair complexity, minimizes downtime and improves overall system reliability.

“This program represents a shift from printing structure alone to printing functionality directly into the structure,” says Steve Starner, CEO of Continuous Composites.

The Phase II program includes a 30-month R&D period focused on materials, process validation and embedded conductor integration at the coupon and sub-scale structure level. This effort is followed by a 1-year option period to deliver a functional, system-level demonstration, advancing the technology toward deployment in operational UAV platforms.

This work supports broader Department of Defense initiatives to reduce system complexity, improve maintainability and accelerate the deployment of advanced composite-enabled platforms.

Source | Eptek

Eptek Tooling Materials (Shanghai) Co. Ltd. (Eptek), a Chinese manufacturer of tooling materials, has developed a precision‑cast polyurethane and epoxy tooling board technology that replaces traditional spliced board construction for large, complex molds and models.

Conventional tooling boards are supplied as standard rectangular slabs. For large parts or deep cavities, manufacturers must cut, glue, cure and finish multiple sections. This splicing creates bondlines that differ from the base material in hardness, thermal expansion and sanding behavior. Even after filling and painting, seams can reappear on high‑gloss or Class A surfaces, especially after temperature cycling. Glue joints also become potential leak paths in vacuum‑forming and composite layup tooling, and adhesive layers are weak points that can crack or delaminate under repeated loads. In addition, splicing requires multiple steps — cutting, gluing, clamping, curing and seam finishing — which add time and labor.

Eptek’s alternative uses a close‑contour casting process. Starting from the customer’s 3D data, the company designs a dedicated cavity and injects liquid polyurethane (PUcast) or epoxy (EPcast) resin to form a single, monolithic blank that closely follows the final part contour. Only minimal machining allowance is left, reducing roughing time — in some cases by more than 50%. For thick‑wall or high‑temperature applications, staged curing and post-curing are applied to minimize internal stress and stabilize dimensions.

The cast blanks eliminate bondlines entirely, offering continuous surfaces, better vacuum integrity and longer service life compared with spliced boards. While standard board stock remains economical for small, simple parts, the casting approach becomes more efficient for large, curved or vacuum‑sealed workpieces.

In automotive model‑making, which accounts for about half of Eptek’s projects, the cast tooling boards are used for full‑vehicle styling models, data control models, interior/exterior trim tooling and check fixtures. The seamless blanks allow Class A surface evaluation without seam telegraphing.

In aerospace applications — also about 50% of the portfolio — the material serves as transition mold blanks for composite parts such as wing skins, fuselage panels and doors. It is also used for vacuum milling fixtures, stretch‑forming dies for sheet metal and inspection tooling. The monolithic structure eliminates leak paths across the tool surface.

Eptek offers a full product range, including PUcast and EPcast cast systems, PUboard and EPboard board stock, lightweight PUfoam cores, EPmold paste and prepreg systems, iClay styling clay and water‑soluble core material for hollow composite structures. According to the company, the core philosophy is simple: “One less splice, one more measure of manufacturing certainty.”

The original source of this announcement is available from SAMPE China.

This post is courtesy of the CompositesWorld and SAMPE China Insights media partnership. 

Source | Boeing

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has officially granted Boeing Co. (Arlington, Va., U.S.) an amended type certificate for the 737-7, clearing the way for commercial deliveries of the smallest 737 MAX variant to begin in early 2027, Aviation Week reports.

The certification, covering an amended type certificate and an updated Production Limitation Record, follows nearly a decade of review that began with the 737-7’s first flight in March 2018, Aviation Week notes. The FAA states the approval reflects years of work to resolve technical issues and complete a thorough review of the airplane’s design and safety analyses, with the agency directly reviewing work on flight controls, system safety assessments, human factors and flightcrew alerting. The regulator required updates to the flight-control software, the flightcrew alerting system and a redesigned engine anti-ice system before granting approval — changes tied to requirements in the Aircraft Certification, Safety and Accountability Act and to NTSB recommendations following two 737-8 accidents in 2018 and 2019.

Certification flight testing accumulated 686 flight-test hours across 441 test flights, along with 349 ground-test hours, per Aviation Week. For now, Boeing is pursuing only FAA certification for the 737-7, rather than joint certification with the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA).

Mike Sinnett, Boeing senior vice president of product strategy, product development and development programs, says the certification effort has sharpened the company’s understanding of current regulatory requirements. “With this certification program, Boeing has developed a clearer understanding of the latest regulatory requirements, which will accelerate future airplane development with a renewed emphasis on human factors, safety and quality.”

The 737-7’s airframe remains predominantly aluminum, though — as with other 737 MAX variants — it incorporates composite materials in secondary structures such as its winglets, tailcone, radome and flight control surfaces, as detailed in 2022 Boeing aircraft documentation.

Boeing’s broader composites portfolio continues to expand beyond the 737 family. The 787 Dreamliner’s primary structure, including its fuselage and wing, is made from roughly 50% composite materials by weight. The 777X goes further still: its wings, built at Boeing’s Composite Wing Center in Everett, Washington, using automated fiber placement (AFP) are reportedly the “largest carbon fiber composite wing structures manufactured for a commercial airliner to date.” Boeing is applying lessons from the 737-7 and MAX-10 certification campaigns to that program as well, Sinnett adds.

The FAA notes that its safety inspectors will remain on-site at Boeing production facilities to monitor manufacturing and assess the company’s Safety Management System and safety culture. Flight testing has also concluded on the 737-10, the final and largest MAX derivative, which logged 976 flights totaling more than 2,060 flight hours, Aviation Week reports. Boeing says that program is now moving through remaining development assurance reviews and system safety assessments ahead of final submission to the FAA.

A DHL Boeing 777 freighter on static display forming the backdrop of the Farnborough International Airshow 2026. Source (All Images Unless Otherwise Mentioned) | Stewart Mitchell

The composites on display at the 2026 Farnborough International Airshow shared a common thread, in that the material itself was rarely the headline. What set one demonstrator apart from the next was the thinking behind it, how the fiber was placed, how heat and pressure were applied and how a design anticipated the loads, safety cases and production rates that determine whether a part ever reaches series production. In short, they continue to be key enablers.

Aerospace composite tides, aeroengines

Two main pressures influenced nearly everything on display. The first was the need for increased production rates. Combined narrowbody aircraft OEM announcements indicate that demand is more than 120 complete aircraft per month, and some electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) programs are gearing up to produce 650 per year from some manufacturers (read CW’s 2022 “We’re going to need a lot of propeller blades”). Traditional autoclave and prepreg processes alone cannot meet these higher demands. The second pressure is durability, which encompasses a wide range of concerns, including erosion, impact resistance, battery thermal runaway and recyclability broadly. These issues are viewed as structural challenges to be addressed rather than mere afterthoughts. Much of the exhibition showcased a supply chain poised to tackle both rate and durability simultaneously, focusing on representative hardware rather than just flat-panel samples.

CW also highlights several other developments and partnerships announced at Farnborough 2026 via this announcement roundup.

A cutaway of the Rolls-Royce UltraFan, its composite fan blades and composite fan case sitting ahead of the geared core that drives the high-bypass architecture. Source | Rolls-Royce

Rolls-Royce (London, U.K.) framed the commercial aerospace backdrop more plainly, describing narrowbodies as the single biggest industrial opportunity for the sector over the next half century; much of what was highlighted at Farnborough read as the supply chain preparing to answer it.

Rolls-Royce is addressing some of these needs through the use of composite materials for its aerogines’ largest-diameter rotating components — the intake fan blades — which sit in front of the geared core and power the high-bypass architecture of its new UltraFan family. Both the UltraFan 80 and UltraFan 30 models, designed for widebody and narrowbody aircraft respectively, feature what the company refers to as a CTi fan, which includes carbon fiber-reinforced polymer (CFRP) blades that are protected by a titanium leading edge, all contained within a composite fan case.

The unducted bet

The largest single lever on an engine’s dynamic performance is its intake fan. GE Aerospace (Evendale, Ohio, U.S.) showcased its one-third-scale model of the Open Fan propulsion concept at the event. This unducted design is being developed under the CFM Revolutionary Innovation for Sustainable Engines (RISE) technology demonstrator, a collaboration led by CFM International (Cincinnati, Ohio, U.S.), which is a 50-50 joint venture between GE Aerospace and Safran Aircraft Engines (Courcouronnes, France). 

By eliminating the fan casing, the Open Fan allows for a larger fan, increasing the bypass ratio and propulsive efficiency while reducing drag. The RISE program aims to achieve 20% higher fuel efficiency than currently operating engines. This improvement is not solely due to the Open Fan design but rather a combination of a suite of technologies, including a compact core and hybrid-electric systems.

In the Open Fan architecture, both the variable-pitch fan blades and the outlet guide vanes — stationary components designed to straighten the airflow behind the fan — are made of CFRP and are fully exposed to the elements (see CW’s coverage of the Open Fan reaching preliminary design review).

GE Aerospace's one-third-scale Open Fan model with an unducted architecture is being matured under the CFM RISE program. 

An exposed, variable-pitch composite blade must withstand bird and debris strikes without the protection that a case would typically provide. Additionally, it needs to operate quietly, which is where GE Aerospace’s expertise in composite propellers becomes important. Its propeller division, Dowty Propellers (Gloucester, U.K.), is integrating its experience in composite blade design, retention and pitch actuation from open-environment propellers into the Open Fan blade root (read CW’s 2022 plant tour of Dowty Propellers). This is alongside the group’s knowledge of turbofan composite fans.

“How we integrate that intelligence is really what's revolutionary,” said Chelsey Levingston, senior business communications manager at GE Aerospace, speaking at the Farnborough International Airshow. “We have more than 300 million hours on turbofan composites, and another 50 million hours with composite propeller systems that already operate in open environments. Open Fan combines the best of turbofan and turboprop, so in terms of who has the most composite engine fan experience in the industry, it’s hard to beat.”

To date, RISE has completed approximately 500 test campaigns and more than 3,000 endurance test cycles. CFM has confirmed the design reviews for the Open Fan and compact core modules recently, with plans for ground and flight tests scheduled for this decade. Much of this progress depends on advancements in simulation, as the behavior of a full-scale Open Fan has been modeled before the creation of any hardware. Additionally, within the design time, a lead for producibility has been designated to ensure that the laminate remains manufacturable as production rates increase.

“The modeling is way ahead of the hardware,” Levingston adds. “We’ve modeled a full-scale Open Fan in a digital environment on an aircraft wing to simulate turbulence, noise and other performance characteristics, and as we test hardware and feed the findings back, each design iteration improves. Without that supercomputing power, it would take us decades to advance this engine. It lets us reduce the design iteration time and introduce a whole new engine architecture in a single generation.”

Braided TPC propeller blades

Dowty's DigiProp, a thermoplastic composite (TPC) propeller blade braided at high rate with NCC for a lighter, recyclable part. 

Targeting smaller aircraft, Dowty showcased DigiProp, a thermoplastic composite (TPC) propeller blade developed through the £20 million Digital Propulsion program, which was completed in 2021. This program collaborated with three High Value Manufacturing Catapult centers: NCC (Bristol, U.K.) the Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC) at the University of Sheffield (Sheffield, U.K.) and the Manufacturing Technology Centre (MTC, Coventry, U.K.).

The program successfully industrialized the triaxial carbon fiber braiding of a thermoplastic preform, which consolidates much more quickly than the traditional autoclave curing process (also in CW’s Dowty plant tour). Additionally, since a thermoplastic matrix can be remelted rather than being permanently set through cross-linking, it opens up possibilities for recycling the blade at end of its life.

However, processing thermoplastics at high fiber volumes can be quite challenging. Thus, the success of this propeller sits in effectively managing the braiding and consolidation processes. Dowty presented the DigiProp as a pathway to creating lighter, more damage-tolerant blades that can be produced in higher volumes.

Vertical addresses eVTOL rotor blade challenge 

The blade problem takes on a new dimension in an electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft. Vertical Aerospace's (Bristol, U.K.) second-generation Gen 2 VX4 propeller blade, developed in collaboration with NCC and currently in operation on the full-scale prototype, must function effectively across two distinct flight regimes. Since the VX4 is a winged aircraft, its forward rotors tilt from vertical mode for takeoff, hover and landing, to cruise mode for producing forward thrust for regular flight.

With these hybrid flight regimes comes hybrid design challenges. In comparison, a helicopter rotor is large and rotates slowly, while a turboprop blade is smaller and spins rapidly. The forward blade of the eVTOL is positioned between these two types. It must support the entire weight of the aircraft during hover and then act like a fixed-wing propeller once it is airborne. Importantly, the blade must remain quiet and lightweight for both modes of operation. 

Additionally, it is crucial that the blade does not shed any fragments that could hit another rotor or interfere with  flight control lines, as this poses a risk of cascading failures, which is a specific concern in distributed propulsion systems.

Conventional practices often increase strike tolerance by using extra thickness or by employing tougher, heavier laminates. However, this added mass is something an electric aircraft cannot afford, as every kilogram removed from the structure translates into increased battery capacity, range or payload. As such, the Gen 2 blade achieves its structural performance through the internal arrangement of reinforcement and the way impact energy is distributed throughout the structure, rather than from matrix toughness alone. NCC helped Vertical Aerospace develop this architecture after evaluating various concepts. 

The eVTOL aircraft blade was engineered for a single-shot cure, allowing it to be consolidated in one operation, which reduces part count, minimizes joints and lowers assembly variability. The design for manufacture process was conducted concurrently with a supplier selection process, resulting in production partnerships with U.K. companies, Rockwood Aerospace (Paignton, U.K.) and Polar Technology (Eynsham, U.K.). 

Vertical is constructing seven certification aircraft in the U.K. and aims to obtain type certification from the UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) and the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) by around 2028. Following certification, the goal is to ramp up production to more than 225 aircraft per year by 2030. Repeatable, rate-capable blade manufacturing then becomes a critical requirement or a limiting factor.

A drone rotor off the tool in under a minute

For drone blades, at the smallest scale of rotor scale, the manufacturing process shifts from layup to molding. TU Wien (Vienna, Austria) and injection mold machine manufacturer Engel (Schwertberg, Austria) have introduced the NeoBlade, an entirely automated, mass-produced TPC rotor blade created through injection molding. 

This blade features a tape sandwich structure. Continuous carbon fiber-reinforced thermoplastic (CF/TPC, also known as CFRTP) tapes serve as the load-bearing outer skins. Positioned in the mold and held in place by vacuum, the reinforcement aligns precisely along the load paths, allowing material to be placed only where the structure needs it. A short fiber polypropylene compound is injected between the tapes to create a near-net-shape core that adheres to the skins through shared matrix chemistry. Additionally, this core is chemically foamed to reduce weight while maintaining the structural integrity of the section. During processing, the tapes and the injected core are combined within the same matrix, allowing them to fuse into a single consolidated part.

The NeoBlade from TU Wien and Engel, an injection molded TPC drone rotor with its noise-reducing serrations molded straight into the part. 

The intelligence of the process is embedded in the manufacturing cell and the blade itself.  Engel produces the blades on a tie-bar-less Victory 120 machine paired with an Easix six-axis robot. Serrated edges help to reduce broadband noise by around 3 decibels and are created using mold inserts. The system’s open clamp design provides the robot with sufficient space to strip the previous blade, place new tapes and remove the finished part, all within a cycle time of less than 60 seconds. 

This project is part of Austria’s Take Off program, with FACC (Ried im Innkreis, Austria) leading the composites sector among the partners. The initiative also explored the use of recycled carbon fiber compounds, resulting in a life cycle CO₂ reduction compared to equivalent thermoset processes. Multi-cavity tooling has been identified as crucial for achieving true volume production and though this research demonstrator still requires a final trimming step, it indicates a promising near-net-shape and automation-driven approach for producing small aerostructures.

Airframes at rate

The blade was a recurring characteristic at Farnborough 2026, but the panel was another focal point. In this case, the main question was how to lay down fiber quickly, accurately, and onto real geometries. ICOMAT (Bristol, U.K.) and NCC made progress here by showcasing the first 5-meter aerospace wing skin using rapid tow shearing (RTS). This wing skin was deposited directly onto complex 3D tooling, marking the largest and most significant aerospace validation of the process to date. 

RTS controls the fiber by shearing the tow width in-plane, rather than bending the tow path (see CW’s dive into RTS). This approach avoids the gaps and overlaps that conventional automated fiber placement (AFP) methods create when the deposition angle exceeds approximately ±30°. The defect-free steering of RTS allows wide material to follow curved load paths onto doubly curved surfaces, enhancing structural performance by aligning fiber with the loads. Additionally, RTS can achieve production speeds and is reported to be up to 10X faster than conventional methods.

A Cevotec fiber patch placement (FPP) skin built entirely from reclaimed aerospace prepreg offcut, which beat the original production part on weight and stiffness. 

Another automated placement method was showcased, demonstrating its applicability for  waste reduction, in addition to performance enhancement. In collaboration with NCC, Cevotec (Munich, Germany) used its fiber patch placement (FPP) technology — an Industry 4.0 automated layup system that robotically places discrete fiber patches — to create an aerostructure skin entirely from recovered aerospace wing offcuts. 

This redesigned part comprised 80% recovered waste and surpassed the original component in both weight and stiffness, because patch placement optimizes the arrangement of fibers to align with the local load field rather than nesting them for a roll. For a representative wing component, Cevotec reports that this method could reduce landfill waste from 16,200 kilograms to 4,400 kilograms annually and divert approximately £912,000 GBP ($1,223,000) worth of material each year into secondary products, effectively transforming manufacturing scrap into a high-quality feedstock (read more about FPP).

Archer's Midnight air taxi, shown here at the show, features a majority CFRP airframe conceived for aerospace allowables at automotive build rates. 

Addressing the challenge of achieving automotive production rates for entire primary structures is particularly complex, as highlighted by Archer Aviation's (San Jose, Calif., U.S.) Midnight air taxi. Approximately 25% of the aircraft's total mass consists of an airframe predominantly made from CFRP. This includes the fuselage, wings, empennage, rotor booms and propellers, which is typical for this class of aircraft where composites usually account for around 70% of material composition.

The material used throughout the aircraft is Hexcel (Stamford, Conn., U.S.) prepreg, selected for its consistent performance across different batches as well as its inherent properties. By sourcing the fiber and toughened epoxy from a single, vertically integrated supplier, consistency is enhanced, and the supply chain is streamlined, making it suitable for high-volume production.

The propeller blades are manufactured by FACC using HexPly M91 toughened epoxy reinforced with IM8 intermediate modulus carbon fiber. This choice is driven by the need for stiffness in a rotating structure that must maintain its aerodynamic shape across the disc; in this context, deflection becomes a key design consideration rather than ultimate strength. Standard modulus fiber is used in other areas of the eVTOL airframe, ensuring that the more costly materials are only applied where necessary according to load requirements (CW quantifies the composite-intensity of eVTOL airframes).

Multifunctional hybrid structures

A sectioned Plyform sandwich panel, its carbon fiber skins closing over a graded core with a solid laminate edge close-out. 

Optimized airframe panels perform multiple structural functions simultaneously. Plyform Composites (Varallo Pombia, Italy), part of the All Ways Group (Pianezza, Italy), showcased sectioned examples of how these panels are assembled. The company used Farnborough to celebrate AS9100 certification of its San Gilio plant, which was audited by Tüv Süd (Munich, Germany). Plyform also holds EN 9100 and NADCAP special process approvals, forming the quality system baseline that a composite SME must meet to supply mission-critical aerospace hardware.

In the cut samples exhibited at the show, CFRP face sheets are layered over a graded core. Aluminum honeycomb provides shear strength in high-load areas, while a lighter foam core is used in regions with less stress. An internal solid laminate web runs through the sandwich panel, acting as an internal spar. At the joints, potted metallic inserts secure the fasteners. One insert remains in place through a hard point in the section, while the core tapers down into monolithic close-outs at the edges of the panel. This design allows a single panel to bear the distributed aerodynamic pressure across its surface and the discrete point loads at its attachment points. Ensuring that this process is traceable and repeatable is what PlyForm’s certification milestone supports.

A different collaboration on display extended the multi-material approach into the drivetrain. Polar Technology is working with Independent Forgings and Alloys (IFA, Sheffield, U.K.), to combine closed-die metallic gear blanks with composite bodies, resulting in hybrid composite-metallic gears. The key innovation is a mechanical interface that eliminates the need for adhesive bonding between the two material systems, which is often the weak point in hybrid drivetrain components. 

This design allows for adjustable stiffness and achieves a mass reduction of up to 40% compared to an all-metal equivalent, thereby reducing rotating inertia. This improvement enhances efficiency and dynamic response without compromising durability. The applications targeted for this technology include aircraft accessory gearboxes, uncrewed aircraft propulsion, landing gear deployment and missile fin actuation.

This hybrid composite-metallic gear from Polar Technology and Independent Forgings and Alloys saves up to 40% in mass against an all-metal equivalent. 

Novel materials for EV battery protection

Within the theme of electric aviation, another key topic was electric system protection. Oerlikon (Pfaffikon, Switzerland) introduced a range of thin engineered composite barrier materials designed for electric vehicle (EV) battery packs. The goal is to apply insights from the automotive industry to the aerospace sector, particularly in battery enclosures for eVTOL and hybrid-electric programs as their energy storage capacities increase.

An Oerlikon HS918 barrier panel, its formed channels guiding venting gas away from critical battery components. 

These materials are functional technical textile composites specifically engineered to prevent thermal runaway in a single cell from spreading throughout the entire battery pack, a critical target for achieving zero thermal propagation in AAM. (Read more about aviation-specific composite battery systems, or take a broader look at the EV battery enclosure industry.)

Oerlikon’s range of materials are classified by duty grades. The heat shield grades vary in thickness from approximately 0.6 to 1.8 millimeters and can withstand continuous temperatures between 1000°C and 1400°C. Moreover, they can endure pre-event dielectric breakdowns of up to 18 kilovolts and feature hot-gas particle impact resistance that increases with thickness, lasting about 7-24 seconds. 

SafeVent grades, which are 0.8 millimeter thick, facilitate gas venting and protect busbars while providing insulation for voltages above 10 kilovolts per millimeter. These grades have tensile strengths ranging from 175-195 megapascals. A multifunctional cell separator offers thermal isolation up to 700°C and compensates for mechanical swelling of approximately 410 micrometers. This design helps absorb the changes in volume that occur during charge and discharge cycles, ensuring consistent energy density over the lifespan of the battery.

Oerlikon has tested an 0.8-millimeter busbar barrier, capable of providing arc protection at temperatures of up to 1000°C,according to IEC 61439-1 standards. All materials in this range carry a UL94-V0 flammability rating and feature mica-free, non-petroleum-based formulations.

Regulatory compliance is uniform across markets, adhering to standards such as UN GTR No. 20, China's GB 38031-2020 and Europe's ECE R100. Each of these regulations mandates a minimum time frame for occupants to escape before fire spreads. For airframe manufacturers designing composite battery enclosures, the key takeaway is that these thin, 3D-formable barriers offer effective protection without adding significant mass or packaging constraints.

Although applications varied, the composites technologies showcased at Farnborough 2026 had a unified theme across various applications: the materials’ ability to confer advantage, be it in weight, rate, power, performance, safety, sustainability or all of the above. Whether it was wide tape applied to 3D tooling, an injection cell producing a foamed-core rotor blade every minute, an eVTOL blade designed to channel impact energy effectively, or reclaimed prepreg outperforming the original material, the materials repeatedly showed their ability to meet the needs of an evolving industry and provide the innovation needed to enable the next generation of aircraft.The real advantage lay in the techniques used for their placement, curing, joining and protection.

Source | FIBERSPACE

FIBERSPACE, a composite technology company founded in Racibórz, Poland, has expanded its operations to Luxembourg and added a new five-axis milling machine to its production line. FIBERSPACE covers the full project life cycle for composite parts — design, engineering, tooling, prototyping, industrialization and contract manufacturing — using autoclave prepreg manufacturing and high-speed press molding, and serves the space, defense, aerospace and automotive industries.

The company recently joined the Technoport SA incubator in Luxembourg, which it describes as a strategic step to build an international footprint alongside its existing manufacturing base in Poland. 

On the manufacturing side, FIBERSPACE says it has added a new five-axis milling machine from CMS SpA (Zogno, Italy) to its production infrastructure, which expands the company’s capacity for advanced machining and complex part production.

FIBERSPACE supplies interior and exterior composite components for hypercar manufacturers, spanning prototype through series production, and its space-sector work, which it says has included a component that has passed qualification testing and is currently operating in orbit. The company is also positioned to serve defense sector, citing demand for lighter, stronger composite structures in UAVs, unmanned systems, aerospace structures, ground vehicles and naval applications. 

FiberPress system. Source | Dieffenbacher

Dieffenbacher (Eppingen, Germany) is exhibiting hydraulic presses and automated forming solutions for the defense and aerospace sectors, along with its Evoris digitalization platform.

Brian Goodchild, head of sales for North America’S Forming Business Unit at Dieffenbacher, says the company will present its hydraulic presses and fully automated forming solutions for manufacturing ballistic protection equipment — including helmets, shields and body and vehicle armor — to partners and customers in the defense sector. “We’re also showcasing our solutions for the series production of components for the aerospace industry, such as Dieffenbacher’s Fiberforge tape laying system, our Cutting & Stacking systems for dry fiber fabrics and prepregs, our RTM press lines and our cross-industry digitalization solution, Evoris,” he adds.

Evoris, described as an AI-assisted digital platform for individual machines and complete production lines, comprises three components. Evoris Intelligence measures, collects and stores plant-wide, manufacturer-independent process and production data at a central location, which the company says helps make production processes more transparent, efficient and sustainable — a consideration for safety-critical industries such as aerospace and defense.

Evoris Connect is a digital customer portal offering an integrated ticket system, an order tracker for spare parts shipments, an equipment hub for a centralized view of a customer’s Dieffenbacher machine fleet and a digital spare parts catalog for documentation and ordering directly from drawings.

Evoris Control combines machine operation with integrated measurement systems and full access to the Evoris Intelligence and Evoris Connect tools, allowing entire plants to be operated from a single platform; the interface is designed to guide operators to relevant information at the right moment and scales across devices from smartphones to large-format displays.

Source | Gilmour Space Technologies

Queensland-based aerospace companies Gilmour Space Technologies (Australia) and Hypersonix Launch Systems (Brisbane, Australia) have signed an agreement to develop hypersonic flight-test capability for defense and commercial programs in Australia and overseas.

The partnership brings together Gilmour Space’s rocket propulsion, launch, mission integration and flight-test capabilities with Hypersonix’s scramjet propulsion and hypersonic vehicle technology. 

Both companies have composites experience. Hypersonix’s scramjet vehicles use ceramic matrix composite (CMC) components. In July, it helped advance CMC parts capable of withstanding temperatures beyond Mach 5. Gilmour Space is known for its use of carbon fiber on platforms like the Eris 1 rocket and other launch-related systems. This is important, as growing demand for hypersonic testing is being driven by the development of systems and enabling technologies including advanced sensors, communications, guidance systems and high-temperature materials.

Gilmour Space co-founder and CEO Adam Gilmour, says the agreement could give customers more options to develop, test and demonstrate advanced technologies at a greater frequency. “Australia is developing serious expertise in rockets, scramjets and hypersonic flight. The next step is connecting those technologies and giving them a pathway through demonstration and into use,” he explains. “By bringing together our complementary strengths, we can support a broader range of applications, while building sovereign capability that makes Australia a stronger and more valuable partner.”

Hypersonix CEO Matt Hill adds that the partnership could help meet growing international demand for hypersonic test and evaluation and support the development of Australia’s operational capabilities. “Defense customers need more frequent, responsive and accessible ways to test technologies in representative hypersonic conditions,” he says. “Working with Gilmour Space will help us meet this need at pace and scale, while exploring new solutions for Australian and allied programs, including under AUKUS Pillar II.”

Gilmour Space and Hypersonix are portfolio companies of the National Reconstruction Fund Corp.

GKN Aerospace displayed a full-scale mock-up of the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) alongside the turbojet engine at The Armed Forces Air Venture 2026, an event held as part of the Swedish Air Force’s centenary celebrations. Source | GKN Aerospace

GKN Aerospace (Birmingham, U.K.) has unveiled a demonstrator for an uncrewed aerial vehicle (UAV, see image above) less than a year after launching the program, marking the platform’s first public presentation. The aircraft integrates propulsion, aerostructures and systems integration work carried out by GKN Aerospace teams in Sweden, the Netherlands and the U.K.

The program was launched in November 2025 under a contract with the Swedish Defence Materiel Administration (FMV), with the goal of developing a UAV demonstrator and dedicated turbojet engine within 18 months. It covers development of the engine, airframe and onboard systems, with the resulting platform intended to support testing and evaluation of future uncrewed aviation technologies.

Sara Eklöf, senior vice president of government solutions at GKN Aerospace, says the experience gained through the effort will carry into the program’s next phase, which includes preparations for future flight-test activities. The initiative builds on GKN Aerospace’s ongoing work with FMV and the Swedish Armed Forces.

GKN composites and UAV expertise

As explained on the GKN Aerospace website, it is a key supplier for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) and remotely piloted aircraft system (RPAS) programs, including technology leadership in advanced aerostructures and lightweight technologies, which it says has been demonstrated to fit with the requirements of UAV and Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) OEMs.

For General Atomics Aeronautical Systems (GA-ASI), for example, GKN Aerospace designs and builds composite landing gear and the composite tail for the MQ-9B SkyGuardian. The company manufactures lightweight re-usable missile canisters, structural components and missile electrical wiring interconnect systems (EWIS), and leverages a long history of manufacturing high-quality components for manufacturers like Raytheon and Lockheed Martin. For its missile canisters specifically, GKN Aerospace uses a “unique process of filament winding followed by vacuum infusion.”

Moreover, in 2024, GKN Aerospace announced it would increase the capacity and efficiency of its aeroengines manufacturing facility in Trollhättan, Sweden. A new 5,000-square-meter production area was slated to open in 2026, focusing on the latest digital factory processes, including additional automation, robotics and digital technologies. Aimed to support the ongoing global aerospace industry ramp-up, it reportedly enables GKN Aerospace to increase productivity, improve quality and reduce industry lead times of its engine systems and major structural components. This expansion followed an earlier announcement that GKN Aerospace was also establishing an Additive Fabrication Centre of Excellence in Trollhättan, to support further growth.

GKN Aerospace also had filament winding capability in its Applied Composites AB (ACAB) facility in Linköping, Sweden, which produced drive shafts, pressure vessels and missile components, alongside aerospace engine and structural components (see 2014 CW news). GKN Aerospace sold ACAB to Saab in 2017, but recently signed a new partnership agreement to strengthen its collaboration with Saab, including developing innovative solutions for next-generation fighter aircraft systems. As part of that partnership, GKN Aerospace opened a new office in Linköping, Sweden in spring 2025 (see Linköping Science Park news). 

R&D on filament-wound composite parts — including missile canisters — is also performed using a Taniq (Rotterdam, Netherlands) robot-assisted filament winding machine and winding software. In a 2024 interview with CW, Taniq explained its first system that integrated robotic winding equipment with its TaniqWind Pro software was actually sold to GKN Fokker “for manufacturing of missile cannisters and composite pressure vessels.”

Source (All Images) | BAE Systems

GKN Aerospace (Birmingham, U.K.) has completed the engineering, manufacture and full prototype integration of flight-ready wings, fins and control surfaces for the U.K.’s first collaborative combat aircraft (CCA) prototype, called Brontanax. Progressing from a clean sheet design within an accelerated timeline, BAE Systems (London, U.K.) used GKN Aerospace’s advanced composites manufacturing and assembly capabilities to meet strict technical requirements. 

The components were manufactured at GKN Aerospace’s state-of-the-art composite design and assembly facility at Cowes on the Isle of Wight in the U.K. “The rapid progression from concept to prototype integration is a remarkable achievement,” notes Mark Wilson, head of autonomous collaborative platforms at BAE Systems. “GKN Aerospace’s industrial expertise, agility and commitment to collaboration have been pivotal in delivering high-quality, flight-ready structures within a very compressed timeline."

GKN Aerospace says its success required an agile approach to product development and supply chain management, its global connected network of sites and expertise in world-class composites manufacture, novel tooling design and complex product assembly. This achievement underlines the company’s determination and willingness to apply its extensive sovereign industrial capabilities and expertise to meet the current and future needs of the U.K. defense sector alongside its other global customers.

For related content, read “GCAP Trinational Fighter Jet Program Takes Off With £4.6B Contract.”

Source | Heart Aerospace

Heart Aerospace’s (Los Angeles, Calif., U.S.) X1 demonstrator aircraft has made a successful first flight. It spans 106 feet, measuring 76 feet nose to tail, and weighs more than 25,000 pounds at takeoff — reportedly the largest battery-electric aircraft ever flown. It also comprises a composite fuselage and wing.

The flight took place Aug. 12^th at Heart’s X1 flight-test base at Plattsburgh International Airport, a regional commercial airport serving a community of 20,000 people in upstate New York. The piloted mission lasted 27 minutes, during which X1 reached an altitude of 1,100 feet AGL and its all-electric propulsion system delivered more than 1 megawatt of power.

The flight was conducted under an FAA Special Airworthiness Certificate in the Experimental Category (SAC-EC), with a test profile that included taxi, takeoff, climb, maneuvering and landing. The mission was designed to demonstrate all-electric flight at a scale relevant to commercial airline operations.

Powered entirely by batteries, X1 used approximately $5 worth of electricity during its first flight. The flight came amid a sustained surge in global jet fuel prices, which averaged $3.50 per gallon for the week ending August 7, up 63% year over year, highlighting the potential for electric propulsion to deliver structurally lower aircraft operating costs while decoupling airlines from the volatility of global oil markets.

“With the first flight of X1, Heart Aerospace has demonstrated electric flight at the scale of a commercial airliner,” says Anders Forslund, founder and CEO of Heart Aerospace. 

X1 is a full-scale demonstrator representative of Heart’s ES-30 production aircraft, designed to validate key technologies, aerodynamics and flight performance, and Heart’s organizational capabilities. The ES-30 is a conventional fixed-wing, 30-seat hybrid-electric regional airliner being developed for FAA Part 25 certification. It has attracted customer commitments from major air carriers including United Airlines, Air Canada and JSX.

With entry into service targeted for 2031, Heart expects the ES-30 to reduce aircraft operating costs by more than 40% compared with legacy regional aircraft, driven by lower energy costs, reduced maintenance requirements from simplified electric propulsion and electrified flight systems, and greater aircraft uptime and reliability enabled by an integrated electronics and software architecture.

Heart foresees this cost advantage widening over time through advances in battery technology, technology-enabled gains in crew efficiency and the ES-30’s low exposure to a growing range of emissions-related aviation taxes and fees worldwide.

Heart is currently developing the first pre-production ES-30 at its pilot manufacturing plant in Los Angeles, with flight testing scheduled to begin in 2028.

Allison Giddens is on the forefront of CMMC regulations, and has attended meetings at the Pentagon where she advocates for small businesses amid representatives from large defense companies.

It was kind of an accident that I stumbled upon manufacturing. I was working for a big media company right out of college, and I enjoyed the time there. I had no real qualms about where my career was headed, but then I got passed up for a promotion.

So I had pet sat for Dennis Winslow, who was the owner of Win-Tech at the time. And so I called him and said, “I want to come work for you.”

I sat across from Dennis and he said, “You can answer some phones and file some papers and learn a little bit here and there.” And he slid a number across the table to me and it was 30% less than what I was making.

Dennis had said on his way out the door, “I know it's not what you had your heart set on money-wise, but if you trust me, I think you could run the place one day.”

I ended up on the shop floor for a few weeks with three different journeyman machinists as they were creating a collet holder for the manual mill department. I had no idea what I was doing. But those men were so kind to me. Because they were welcoming and willing to teach me things, I think that was part of what kept me falling in a slow love with manufacturing.

By about 2018, my now business partner, John, and I walked into Dennis's office and said, “We've got all these grand ideas and we want to institute this and that.” Dennis sat back and he said, “Starting Monday, you two run the place for a year.”

Allison Giddens and her co-president, John, split their responsibilities for Win-Tech. While John handles the shop floor, Giddens handles the front office and ensures the shop stays in compliance with its requirements. This delegation has enabled her to prepare the shop for CMMC.

We make a very good team because right from the get-go, we established if anything is on the shop floor and we don't agree with it, it's John's. If it's on the office side, then I get veto power.

A lot of small businesses don't have time to go into the minutiae of CMMC, especially when it's not immediately returning investment. For John and I, while he's actually running the shop floor, my job is operations. My job is finance, IT. The weeds are where I'm supposed to be.

I made it a point. I thought, “This is going to set us apart.” And so we started going after CMMC in 2019. By 2025, when we could sign up for an assessment, we went ahead and did it and we weren't rushed.

We've branched out with the Veterans Accountability Court. When we found that organization, it was great because there were a handful of people in the program that either manufacturing was already on their radar or it was something they were willing to learn and they already had love for country. They had all these things that, if you're going to work for an aerospace and defense shop, well, we already know you're sharing some of these values.

It was COVID that prompted the Advanced Manufacturing Virtual Internship, the AMVI. This is coming up in July, and it's going to be our sixth year doing it. We've got 20 students. We started off at 12. The whole intent was, “How do we get this in front of people that may not otherwise have the opportunity to do so?” Now it's evolved into, “How do we also show other industries what we're all about?”

I think with the future of manufacturing, we're going to figure out how to do what we need to get done, but it's going to be more efficient. I do truly believe the future is going to be driven by wherever we figure our bottlenecks to be.

Source | Airlander

Hybrid Air Vehicles (HAV, Bedford, U.K.), the company behind the dual-use, composites-intensive hybrid Airlander aircraft, and Spanish dual-use tech company Defentia (Zaragoza), have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) for strategic collaboration opportunities in Spain. Defentia specializes in industrialization, systems integration and specialist training for critical operations, with extensive governmental relationships.

The agreement will explore financing, production and partnership opportunities in Spain and will provide important access to European markets. The region’s growing investment in sustainable innovation and focus on dual-use capabilities make it a well-positioned market for Airlander 10 and its expansion across the European market. Defentia’s team add additional insight into the legal, political,and industrial landscape within the fast-growing defense and sustainability-focused nation. 

“Spain represents an important strategic opportunity for Hybrid Air Vehicles as we continue to develop a sustainable aviation business with clear dual-use relevance,” says Toni Green, head of the CEO’s office, HAV. “The country combines established aerospace and defence capability, access to European and international markets, and a strong policy and investment environment for the green transition.”

Read more about Airlander in “Airlander 10: The future of zero-carbon aviation” and “Luxury travel by airship returns” CW articles.

JetZero's Jet1 Demonstrator, a full-scale blended-wing-body aircraft, is taking shape in partnership with Scaled Composites. Source | JetZero

At the end of August 2026, JetZero (Long Beach, Calif., U.S.) closed a senior secured term loan facility of up to $100 million. The capital extends a run of program milestones for JetZero’s all-wing Z4 aircraft, which is designed for the middle market (~250 passenger capacity for up to 5,000 nautical mile range) and will cut fuel burn and emissions by up to 50% relative to conventional tube-and-wing aircraft at the same passenger capacity.

Proceeds will go towards the acceleration of technology maturation, Demonstrator Jet1 manufacturing and buildout of JetZero’s U.S. manufacturing and test facilities in Greensboro, North Carolina, along with growth and working capital in support of the company’s U.S. operations.

“This facility is targeted for pace,” says Tom O’Leary, JetZero CEO and co-founder. “Through this facility, we will fund tooling and production facilities in North Carolina, advancing aerospace innovation and reindustrialization.” The Z4 is expected to enter service in the early 2030s.

The lender group includes Pinegrove Credit Partners backed by Brookfield and HRTG Partners, alongside Silicon Valley Bank, a division of First-Citizens Bank.

JetZero continues to advance the build of Jet1, its full-scale demonstrator, with Scaled Composites (Mojave, Calif., U.S.), a Northrop Grumman company. The build was 40% complete as of June 2026, with its first flight scheduled for Q4 2027. That same month, JetZero broke ground on Factory1, its Z4 production facility in North Carolina. JetZero will hire more than 14,000 people over 10 years to support the aircraft.

Also read “JetZero Advances Composite BWB Demonstrator Build, Reaches FAA Certification Milestone.”

Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI, Seoul, South Korea) has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Embraer (São José dos Campos, Brazil) to establish cooperation in aircraft structures.

As reported by Airframer, the MOU sets out a framework for identifying future areas of collaboration and exploring business opportunities between the two companies. Cooperation is expected to cover research and development for new technologies, along with the identification of opportunities across aircraft structures more broadly.

The scope of the agreement extends to design, engineering, manufacturing and quality control, with both companies prioritizing the optimization of manufacturing processes and improved cost competitiveness. KAI and Embraer intend to combine their respective aerospace engineering, aircraft development and manufacturing capabilities, with a focus on strengthening technological and industrial competitiveness and improving manufacturing efficiency.

“This MOU with Embraer represents a significant step forward in expanding KAI’s international partnerships with leading global aerospace companies,” says KAI president Kim Jong-chul. “We look forward to working closely together to explore future collaboration possibilities based on our shared interest in aircraft structures and future aerospace technologies.”

The agreement builds on both companies’ existing positions in the aerospace supply chain, with KAI’s engineering base and Embraer’s aircraft development and manufacturing experience forming the basis for the planned cooperation. Further details on specific programs or timelines have not yet been disclosed.

Source | LOC Industries

LOC Industries Inc. (Warren, Mich., U.S.) plans to add a new 8 × 20-foot autoclave from Taricco Corp. (Long Beach, Calif., U.S.) to its composites operation, with installation expected in Q2 2027. The addition will increase capacity and give the company greater flexibility to support larger and more complex aerospace structures.

The autoclave will also complement LOC Industries’ existing 8 × 15-foot ASC Process Systems autoclave and 8 × 10-foot ASC curing oven. 

The company will install the autoclave alongside a new, roughly 3,500-square-foot high-bay cleanroom, further expanding its composites manufacturing footprint as it positions itself to support continued growth in the aerospace and defense industry.

“We’re proud to continue investing in the equipment, infrastructure and capabilities needed to support our customers today and the programs coming next,” says Derek Kowalski, owner and president of LOC Industries Inc.

Founded in 2009, LOC Industries provides aerospace structures to OEMs and the U.S. military, with parts flying on aircraft including the C-5 Galaxy, B-52 bomber, UH-60 Black Hawk and CH-53. The company’s composites capabilities include autoclave processing and bonding, compression molding, oven curing and complex composite assembly, supported by climate-controlled cleanroom space for layup and fabrication.

LOC Industries is AS9100D-certified and Nadcap-accredited for composites, and is actively looking to onboard additional aerospace and defense customers as it expands capacity for both existing production programs and new opportunities. The company currently operates from a 65,000-square-foot facility in Warren, north of Detroit

Sources | Lucideon, Nuclear Industry Association

In an August news report by The Engineer, materials science consultancy Lucideon (Stone, U.K.) discusses its proposal to bolster the U.K.’s capabilities in the manufacture and supply of advanced ceramic matrix composite (CMC) materials necessary to maintain the competitiveness of its domestic industries in global markets.

CMC comprise ceramic fibers reinforcing a ceramic matrix, able to withstand ultra-high temperatures as well as thermal and mechanical shock, while enabling weight savings versus metals. Demand for these materials and components made from them have continued to increase globally, but Lucideon notes the U.K. currently lacks the capability to ensure their secure supply.

“There is currently no industrial-scale manufacturing capability for oxide or non-oxide high-temperature ceramics, including CMCs, in the U.K.,” says Richard Goodhead, Lucideon’s chief marketing officer, “which hampers the nation’s ability to maximize our defense, energy and economic security. Lucideon is proposing a blueprint to address that, specifically contributing its cutting-edge capabilities and many years of experience in ceramics and their manufacturing processes.”

These capabilities include oxide fiber-reinforced oxide (Ox-Ox) and non-oxide materials such as carbon fiber-reinforced silicon carbide (C/SiC) and SiC fiber-reinforced SiC (SiC/SiC).

New companies, Oxide Ceramic Systems Ltd.and Non-Oxide Ceramic Systems Ltd., have been incorporated to take Lucideon’s activity forward, and a site at Keele University Science Park is earmarked to house the facility.

Goodhead says the new facility will work with end users in the aerospace, defense and nuclear industries to define which components and CMC materials systems they wish to establish manufacturing capability. This will be followed by manufacturing at pre-production levels, which could range from hundreds to thousands of components per year, with potential for a multi-year program to build to tens of thousands of certified airworthy parts per year.

The costs to deliver the facility are estimated to exceed £500 million over the next 7-10 years, including equipment, people and research and technology development, as well as suitable buildings, validation and certification.

Lucideon will lead this facilities and capability build-out through a joint venture with industry partners and key R&D organizations, noting that the Applied Materials Research, Innovation & Commercialisation Co. (AMRICC) Centre, also based in Stone, is at the heart of the proposal.

As well as private funding, the plan will require just over £200 million in government funding. Goodhead notes Lucideon is working constructively with key stakeholders and the government. “We are focusing on the investment case rather than trying to prescribe the funding mechanism,” he explains. “We are also positively engaged with many potential private-sector organizations in aerospace, defense and nuclear who are validating the demand for such a national capability.”

Read more in reports by the BBC, AMRICC and the Nuclear Industry Association.

Source: Lyten

Lyten, a supermaterials applications company, and Modovolo, a maker of U.S.-manufactured 3D printers and drones, have jointly announced a partnership to advance the global expansion of the BFP, Modovolo's modular 3D printing platform designed for high-performance parts in aviation, automotive and industrial machinery. The BFP platform has been optimized to run on Lyten's 3D graphene-enhanced filaments, creating a lighter, stronger and faster printing solution.

Modovolo developed the BFP to address the growing demand for a U.S.-sourced, U.S.-made 3D printer capable of producing large, complex commercial, industrial and defense-grade parts where customers need them. The modular, transportable design is intended to eliminate supply chain dependencies and be deployed in demanding conditions while still delivering aerospace-grade quality.

Lyten's 3D printing filament, PA1205, is an ultra-high strength, lighter-weight nylon-based filament that, according to the company, outperforms carbon fiber-based alternatives in X-Y axis tensile strength (+100%), Z axis tensile strength (+40%) and impact resistance (+50%). PA1205 also provides improved temperature performance and faster print speeds, with minimal warping and without sacrificing dimensional accuracy.

Justin Call, Modovolo CEO and co-founder, says, "We selected Lyten's filaments for our BFP platform after an exhaustive search for high-performance materials. Lyten's PA1205 enables us to print stronger and lighter parts while maintaining a better print finish and speed vs competing products. Lyten's filaments are an integral part of our product roadmap."

Call adds, "We built BFP out of necessity. We could not find a 3D printer fast enough and affordable enough to produce aerospace-grade components at scale for our drones. We have grown from there to now deploy a fully US-sourced, US-manufactured industrial-scale printer. Combining BFP with Lyten's ultra-high-performance filaments now gives us the ability to instantly stand up modular factories, anywhere in the world, capable of delivering aviation and industrial grade products."

Dan Cook, Lyten CEO and co-founder, says, "Our goal is to prove better performing, better priced products can be both sourced and manufactured locally, creating supply chain resiliency and business model flexibility for customers. We use Lyten's proprietary 3D Graphene to not just make better 3D printing filaments, but to enable aerospace, motorsports and industrial customers to rethink how they design, how they manufacture, and how they supply products around the world."

Modovolo has been utilizing Lyten's filaments since 2025 for the manufacturing of its Lift Quadcopter-X, a multi-payload, ultra-lightweight drone designed to handle commercial, first responder and defense tasks within a single system.

Syensqo and Airbus teams meet at Farnborough Airshow 2026. Source | Syensqo 

Syensqo (Brussels, Belgium) has secured a new long-term supply agreement with Airbus (Toulouse, France). Under the contract, Syensqo will continue to supply a broad range of advanced materials from its portfolio including prepregs, resin transfer molding (RTM) resins, adhesives and primers to support Airbus programs across commercial aircraft, space and defense, and helicopter platforms.

The aerospace and defense market is experiencing unprecedented growth, driven by increasing demand for advanced materials that enable efficient manufacturing processes and support ambitious production rates (several related announcements were made at Farnborough 2026). With its global manufacturing network, application development capabilities and deep industry expertise, Syensqo is confident that it is well positioned to partner with OEMs and Tier suppliers to meet these evolving market needs.

Aerospace continues to be an important growth driver for Syensqo, with sustained demand in civil aviation expected to support volume growth in its Composite Materials business throughout 2026. The company is planned to support the MV-75 Cheyenne defense aircraft, while it broke ground at a site in Maryland focused on aerocomposites production support.

Sources (clockwise from top left, not including logo) | CW/Stewart Mitchell, CW/Stewart Mitchell, Greene Tweed, iCOMAT, CW/Stewart Mitchell, Hill Helicopters

Composites are “Built to Scale” as this year’s National Composites Week (NCW) theme points out — and this is especially important in today’s aviation industry.

As CW executive editor Ginger Gardiner reports in “Composites End Markets: Aviation and Advanced Air Mobility (2026),” commercial airliner OEMs are targeting increased deliveries this year versus 2025 across aircraft product lines, using a variety of methods in an effort to meet rate from activating new production lines, to expanding footprints in key markets like India, to improving manufacturing productivity via automation and digitization. 

At the same time, next-generation aviation technologies are in various stages of development, from the anticipated next-generation single-aisle aircraft, to novel blended wing designs, to hydrogen-powered aircraft and the many players in the emerging advanced air mobility (AAM) market. All of these will require, and are enabling, new innovations in the composites space, from processes with faster processing capabilities to aviation-grade thermoplastic composites (TPC) for increasingly large parts and more.

To celebrate all of the above, check out some of this year’s top articles and news stories focused on high-rate aviation manufacturing technologies:

Composites End Markets: Aviation and Advanced Air Mobility (2026)

Market outlook highlights commercial, defense and bizjet upturn, shift to Asia/rise of India while supply chain struggles to meet rate, AAM begins pivot toward commercial routes plus trends in civil UAS, electric aircraft and the latest in composites developments. (CW editor note: For a high-level look at all things aviation, start here.)

Farnborough International Airshow 2026: Progressing the Composite Advantage

At the 2026 Farnborough International Airshow, the focus on next-generation aircraft propulsion, eVTOL and battery-electric aerospace emphasized process and architecture. In particular, it highlighted how structures are placed, cured and protected — rather than focusing solely on the material itself.

GKN Aerospace's ASPIRE Program Targets Next-Gen Composite Wing Manufacturing Technologies

The three-year, £12 million ASPIRE consortium brings together rapid tow shearing, tailored fiber placement, aligned discontinuous rCF and self-heated tool curing to prove a lighter, high-rate composite wings for the next-generation single-aisle aircraft.

A Sector Under Pressure: Aerostructures, Insourcing and the Future of Composites

For two decades, the aerostructures industry has lagged behind the rest of aerospace on margins. Rising insourcing, vanishing Super Tier 1s and post-pandemic strain are reshaping the supply chain — with major consequences for composites.

Using Pi Joints to Expand a Composite Wing's Flight Envelope

DarkAero replaced butt joints in the center wing box assembly to increase the flight test envelope for its DarkAero 1 prototype composite aircraft.

Cutting Engine Weight via Thermoplastic Composite Guide Vanes

Greene Tweed replaces metal stator vanes with its DLF material co-molded with a metal leading edge that meets performance, cost and high-rate production targets while cutting 4 kg per engine.

One-Shot Compression Molding Enables Main Rotor Blades that Achieve 20,000 Hours Between Overhauls

Hill Helicopters engineered composite main rotor blades using a novel single-cure manufacturing process for stiffness and mass distribution optimization.

Top-viewed composites aviation news of 2026 so far:

• Composite Aerostructures Suppliers Pitch Thermoplastics, Automation for Next Narrowbody
• Alef Aeronautics’ Composites-Intensive Flying Car Enters Production Phase
• Honda Hits Milestone with Successful First eVTOL Aircraft Flight
• Joby Plans to Double U.S. eVTOL Manufacturing Capacity
• Janicki Selects Great Falls, Montana for $800M Manufacturing Campus Expansion
• Engel Develops Automated High-Rate Process for TPC Drone Blades
• JetZero Advances Composite BWB Demonstrator Build, Reaches FAA Certification Milestone
• Aerospace and Defense Startup Hybron Closes $25 Million Seed Round

For more aviation and AAM content, visit compositesworld.com/topics/aerospace.

Source (All Images) | NLR

The recent addition of a Plasmatreat (Steinhagen, Germany) atmospheric plasma treatment system to expand its Structures Technologies department capacity highlights the ways in which the Netherlands Aerospace Centre (NLR, Amsterdam) continues to invest in state-of-the-art facilities to strengthen its research and innovation capabilities.

Atmospheric plasma treatment is widely recognized in the aerospace industry for improving the surface wettability of materials, resulting in stronger substrate-adhesive interaction and enhanced bond performance. According to the NLR, adhesive bonding becomes an increasingly attractive alternative to traditional welding and mechanical fastening for composite and metallic aerostructures — including wings, fuselages and control surfaces — and remains essential for airframe repair (read “Plasma moves beyond improved bonding to coatings, multifunctional composites).

The NLR’s new system is already supporting research within projects such as Luchtvaart in Transitie, SUBSONIC and MaJoR, where its teams are investigating bonded joints for thermoset and thermoplastic composites. Future research will focus on hybrid bonded joints, including composite-to-metal and thermoset-to-thermoplastic combinations.

Expansion of these capabilities strengthen’s the NLR’s support for OEMs and Tier 1 suppliers in developing next-gen, lightweight, high-performance aerostructures and helps to extend the design possibilities of hybrid bonded structures.

Contact info@nlr.nl to learn more about its bonding technology research. Also read more about Plasmatreat on CW and visit the #Bonding topics page.

Parpas America Corp. showcases its milling machine technology designed for high-precision applications in aerospace, mold and die and other demanding manufacturing sectors.

Parpas America Corp. showcases its milling machine technology designed for high-precision applications in aerospace, mold and die and other demanding manufacturing sectors.

Source | Pilatus

Pilatus (Stans, Switzerland) has officially opened its center of advanced composite competence in the canton of Nidwalden, Switzerland. Effective immediately, the development and production of the company’s composite components will be united under one roof for the first time. The new building provides a state-of-the-art workplace for ≈300 employees and has been designed to meet the highest sustainability standards.

Fiber-reinforced composites have been used at Pilatus for more than 40 years, but only for non-load-bearing secondary structures such as covers and cowlings. However, with the PC-24 Super Versatile Jet, composite materials are now used for primary structural load-bearing control surfaces as well. This represents an important technological development in Pilatus aircraft construction because these components are lighter for increased fuel savings. The company plans to further expand the use of composites in the future.

Named after a Swiss mountain, the “Schwarzhorn” building brings all composite part process steps together under one roof — from delivery and storage of raw materials to component production, subassembly and surface treatment, to storage and order picking — the components are then delivered directly to final assembly as finished kits. This largely self-sufficient composite production process allows all involved disciplines to concentrate fully on value-add activities and provides opportunity to use state-of-the-art manufacturing and inspection technologies in the future to further automate production steps. The new building also enables close collaboration between manufacturing and development.

In addition to production technology, the “Schwarzhorn” is also setting new standards in terms of energy-related performance, Pilatus reports. Photovoltaic installations on the roof and facades, plus the use of process-related waste heat for heating and groundwater for cooling, significantly reduce the need for energy from external sources. Another first for Pilatus is the company’s goal of obtaining LEED Platinum certification for the building, an internationally recognized label that signifies sustainable construction including resource conservation, environmental protection and reduction of energy and water consumption.

“With this building, Pilatus is once again reaffirming its commitment to Switzerland as a place of innovation, manufacturing and training — and to our sustainable development here at our home base, where our roots lie. Costing 100 million Swiss francs [~$123 million], this building is the most expensive facility we have invested in to-date,” says Pilatus CEO Markus Bucher.

DM3D’s patented laser direct metal deposition technology enables the company to 3D print large, complex parts for aerospace and space clients from a variety of metals, like this 3D printed turbine casing made from stainless steel. Source: Additive Manufacturing Media (all images)

From producing large format parts to developing direct energy deposition (DED) systems of its own, contract manufacturer and metal additive manufacturing (AM) solutions provider DM3D has leveraged 3D printing to accelerate production for space clients like NASA.

Shifting to Metal AM

When DM3D first opened the doors to its Auburn Hills, Michigan, facility in 2013, the company specialized in both tool and die building and refurbishment, particularly for the automotive industry. However, the one-off business and off-shoring associated with tool and die, an interest in the aerospace market, and 20+ years of experience with AM eventually led president Bhaskar Dutta to shift DM3D’s focus to metal AM.

With a background in DED, Dutta saw an opportunity to scale metal AM production for space and aerospace clients in-house. DM3D has thus developed its own DED technology and patented direct metal deposition (DMD) systems for large-format additive manufacturing (LFAM) production, which it also sells to additive manufacturers.

Now, as well as from production with its own systems, all packaging and shipping operations occur within its Auburn Hills facility. Additionally, most postprocessing is conducted using the company’s multiple in-house CNC and EDM machines, while some extra-large parts are outsourced for finishing.

Direct Metal Deposition (DMD)

DM3D 3D prints with a variety of metals, including stainless steel, Inconel and alloys like aluminum, titanium and copper. Its patented laser DMD technology has been especially useful in these instances, as it is designed to handle a diverse range of metal materials. 

Intended for the production of complex geometries, DMD is a metal AM process that utilizes a focused laser energy source to melt and deposit metal powder or wire layer-by-layer. This process is conducted through the repetition of the following steps: 

1. Material feedstock: Fine metal powders or continuous metal wire are used as feedstock material.
   

   DMD enables DM3D to 3D print with copper alloys, resulting in space components like this combustion chamber manufactured from a copper alloy. 

2. Energy source: Material is melted as it exits the system’s nozzle using a high-powered laser beam.
3. Meltpool formation: When the energy source melts incoming metallic feedstock, a molten pool is formed.
4. Layer-by-layer deposition-: A CAM-controlled positioning system directs the nozzle and energy source to deposit the molten metal onto the substrate or deposited layer, requiring great precision.
5. Solidification: After the quick cooling and solidification of the molten metal, it bonds with the surrounding material to form a dense layer.

LFAM Parts for Low-Volume Industries

For industries that require low volumes of large parts, AM can reduce both costs and lead times associated with production. For this reason, DM3D initially targeted low-volume industries like space and aerospace.

“There was a lead time reduction with the elimination of the tool and die making process,” says Dutta. “For low-volume production and prototyping, additive manufacturing is very cost-effective.”

The company has since 3D printed some of the largest additively manufactured metal components for rocket engines for clients like NASA and other private space companies. As a candidate part, DM3D 3D printed NASA’s RS-25 engine nozzle liner — which stood at 111 inches tall with a 97-inch-diameterbase — using a multi-nozzle DMD system that it had specifically designed for this use case. 

A nozzle jacket 3D printed from Inconel for NASA.  

Following the initial design process, DM3D and NASA simulated the part’s possible thermal, stress and distortion throughout the build process using ANSYS 3D simulation software. Using its DED technology, the liner was then 3D printed. Later, the completed liner passed a structured light geometric inspectional scan.

Leveraging AM to produce the liner resulted in more than 50% reduction in lead time and 25% in cost compared to conventional production methods. According to DM3D, its multi-nozzle DMD system doubled the throughput by using two simultaneously operating process heads, while also harnessing the ability to add two more process heads if necessary.

For clients across various industries, DM3D has positioned itself as a one-stop-shop for AM services and solutions. Being a small company, DM3D carefully chooses the applications it serves in favor of resource conservation. In the near future, the company is looking to become qualified for wire technology and to qualify titanium parts for production, as titanium castings are becoming increasingly difficult for manufacturers to source, expanding its capabilities to serve more applications.

Source | PPG

PPG (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) has announced the debut of its Aeroview virtual aircraft painter, a web-based digital tool that provides an interactive platform for users to select from a variety of aircraft models and digitally apply colors from PPG’s aerospace color library to visualize custom paint schemes in real time.

“The PPG Aeroview virtual aircraft painter is a sophisticated, easy-to-use solution for designers, fleet managers, maintenance planners and aviation enthusiasts to visualize and select aircraft coatings with confidence,” says Lirong Bao, PPG global platform director, aerospace coatings. “By allowing users to digitally customize paint schemes on specific aircraft models, this tool helps reduce design uncertainty, minimize costly repaint errors and accelerate project approvals.”

The Aeroview virtual tool is designed primarily for business and general aviation markets by enabling full 3D renderings of aircraft in various colors and liveries in real time. Key benefits of Aeroview include:

• Reduced need for physical color books.
• Creative support with hundreds of color and finish combinations.
• Improved customer experience through an intuitive, web-based interface.
• Ability to select aircraft models and digitally apply colors and finishes for realistic previews.
• Capability to save, share and archive designs for future reference and maintenance planning.
• Integration with PPG Liverylab studio, a service that assists customers with livery design projects.

The tool is currently available for U.S. aerospace coatings products only.

Source | iCOMAT, NCC 

ICOMAT (Bristol, U.K.) and NCC (Bristol, U.K.) have successfully produced a 5-meter aerospace wing skin using rapid tow shearing (RTS) equipment, deposited directly onto complex 3D tooling. This milestone is described as the largest and most representative aerospace validation of RTS equipment completed to date, moving the technology from flat-panel demonstrations to representative aircraft geometry.

RTS is a fiber placement process that decouples fiber steering from tape width, allowing wide material formats to follow complex load paths and 3D geometries. This approach is intended to provide a scalable route to composites production without the throughput penalties typically associated with steering fibers along curved paths. 

The developed wing skin is a 5.8 × 1.5-meter representative structure, almost 11 millimeters in its thickest areas and around 6 millimeters in the thinnest. The demonstrator combined iCOMAT’s deposition strategy, manufacturing methodology and robotic programming with NCC’s design and manufacturing philosophy, industry-standard tooling and validation expertise. It was built using aerospace-grade prepreg materials on complex 3D tooling and was assessed against real aerospace manufacturing requirements. Tape design, validation, programming, deposition, cure, computer numerical control (CNC) trim and paint were completed end-to-end at iCOMAT’s manufacturing facility in Gloucester.

Interestingly, shearing was actually minimized on this demonstrator to provide close proximity with existing, highly certified processes. A subsequent demonstrator is focused on exploring the benefits that true fiber shearing can achieve in terms of rate and quality.

This milestone is positioned as a step toward high-rate, lower-cost composite aerostructures for civil, defense and space applications.

Read more on LinkedIn. For related content, read “ICOMAT Establishes Factory II to Grow Composites Processing Capacity.”

Source | FACC

FACC (Ried im Innkreis, Austria) is expanding its cooperation with Kineco Aerospace (Goa, India) to a second work package of composite components for Airbus (Toulouse, France). Included in CW’s 2026 Farnborough announcements, this new package comprises several thousand parts per year produced in India, with serial production scheduled to start by the end of 2027 following completion of a qualification milestone with Airbus.

The expanded agreement builds on a long-term supply chain deal the two companies signed at the 2025 Paris Air Show. The move reflects a deliberate strategy, says Andreas Furthmayr, EVP aerostructures at FACC: “India is becoming an increasingly important part of the global aerospace industry, and our strategy is to develop industrial capabilities there with trusted, long-term partners. We are not sourcing from a market — we are building capabilities with partners, and growing with them as India’s aerospace ecosystem develops.”

Published 6/25/2025

FACC Agreements With Rolls-Royce, Tata and Kineco Expand Its Global Backlog, Footprint in India

Source | Rolls-Royce, FACC AG, Kineco, TASL 

The composites aerostructures supplier extends supply contract with Rolls-Royce and establishes new cooperations with Tata Advanced Systems Ltd. and Kineco Aerospace in India.

Rise of composites in India

The FACC deal is part of a broader buildout of aerospace composites capacity in India. According to CW's market forecast for 2025-2030, India is the world’s fastest-growing market for composites, with growth in the carbon fiber value chain projected to run at roughly twice the rate of other composite categories. That report names Tata Advanced Systems, Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd., Rockman Advanced Composites, Adani Defence and Aerospace and Kineco Exel Composites among the parts manufacturers driving CFRP growth in the country, alongside domestic carbon fiber capacity under development from Reliance Industries and Jindal Advanced Materials.

CW’s 2026 Aviation and Advanced Air Mobility market outlook also noted the continued shift to Asia and rise of India. According to an Economic Times report in February 2026, Boeing aims to make India its largest foreign supplier base — it has more than 325 Indian suppliers of parts and services worth $1.25 billion — while Airbus is aiming to increase its part sourcing in India from $1.4 to $2 billion annually. Key developments:

(1) Airbus will manufacture the H125 helicopter in the southern Indian state of Karnataka and is establishing a factory to produce the C-295 military aircraft in the western state of Gujarat with Tata Advanced Systems Ltd. (TASL) — the first time Airbus has deployed an aircraft’s entire production system outside its home nation.

(2) Boeing signed an agreement in January 2024 for TASL to manufacture advanced composite assemblies for the 737 MAX, 777X and 787. The parts will be made in TASL’s advanced composites manufacturing facilities in Bengaluru and Nagpur and add to ongoing production of composite floor beams for the 787 in Nagpur.

Source | Kineco Group 

Meanwhile, the joint venture Tata Boeing Aerospace Ltd. (TBAL) was established in 2021 and employs more than 900 engineers and technicians. It produces various secondary structures, shipped its first vertical fin structures for the 737 family in 2023 and has delivered 300 AH-64 Apache attack helicopter fuselages. The facility has also added a new production line for 737 fan cowl assemblies operating in coordination with the Nagpur and Bengaluru facilities.

India also featured in CW’s 2026 market outlook for Energy and Kineco Group announced multiple rail industry orders in May 2026.

Belmont Equipment & Technologies will feature the MX-226C ZNC EDM sinker, showcasing a compact machine design that delivers powerful EDM performance in a space-saving footprint.

Part of Belmont's exclusive Maxicut Series, a proven EDM sinker platform since 1994, the MX-226C combines the EDM generator with user-friendly EDM settings designed to streamline setup and features a compact machine body that houses the oil reservoir within the machine base. This configuration reduces floor space requirements and eliminates cables on the shop floor.

The MX-226C features X-, Y- and Z-axis travels of 11.8" × 9.8" × 5.9", an open height of 9.4" and a maximum workpiece weight capacity of 1,760 lbs. Key features include a programmable Z-axis that automatically controls depth and generator settings from roughing through finishing cycles, as well as conversational G and M code programming that simplifies programming and reduces operator learning time.

Additional capabilities include a linear glass scale with one-micron resolution and the ability to interface with ancillary devices such as rotary tables, indexers and workpiece-handling systems. An optional adaptive logic control continuously monitors cutting conditions to help prevent arcing and shorting during challenging machining applications.

Designed for moldmaking, tool and die, aerospace and production environments, the MX-226C delivers the precision, performance and ease of use that manufacturers demand.

Seyer Industries, a manufacturer of complex aerospace, defense and industrial components, has ordered a second Starrag STC 1800 machining center to expand capacity for demanding large-component and hard-metal applications.

With the order, Seyer Industries will operate four Starrag machining centers: two Heckert HEC 800 X5 machining centers and two STC 1800 machining centers. The repeat investment builds on the precision, reliability and productivity achieved with the company’s existing Starrag equipment.

The additional STC 1800 will increase Seyer Industries' capacity to machine large titanium, stainless-steel and high-performance-alloy components while maintaining the tight tolerances and quality standards required for aerospace and defense applications. Its large work envelope will also help the company address customer demand for large, complex titanium components.

“The performance of our Starrag machines has played an important role in supporting our growth strategy,” says Mark Seyer, president of Seyer Industries. “The precision, reliability and productivity we have achieved with our existing equipment gave us confidence to invest again. Adding another STC 1800 strengthens our ability to take on increasingly complex programs while maintaining the quality and delivery performance our customers expect.”

For Starrag, the repeat order reflects the value of a long-term relationship built on machine performance, technical expertise and collaboration.

“A repeat order is one of the strongest endorsements a machine-tool supplier can receive,” says Tim Mooney, sales manager at Starrag. “The additional STC 1800 reflects Seyer Industries’ confidence not only in the machine's performance, but also in the technical support and collaboration behind it.”

TX-45 fabric. Source | A&P Technology

Toray Composite Materials America Inc. (Toray CMA, Tacoma, Wash., U.S.) announces the availability of its proven 3960 prepreg system in an off-axis ±45° braided fabric format. This format provides composite designers in the aerospace and defense markets with an alternative to traditional 0°/90° woven prepreg, engineered to reduce waste, improve manufacturing efficiency and increase production rates.

The ±45° bias fiber weave format, produced in collaboration with A&P Technology (Cincinnati, Ohio, U.S.), is ideal for any application requiring high-aspect ratio, off-axis reinforcement, particularly for aerospace primary and secondary structures such as wings, spars and stringers. Long, uninterrupted 45° plies are difficult to achieve with traditional woven prepreg, Toray CMA explains. Because 45° plies make up half of a standard quasi-isotropic layup (0°, +45°, -45°, 90°), manufacturers are able to divide nesting operations between 0°/90° 3960 prepreg fabric and ±45° 3960 prepreg, reducing scrap generated during the cutting and splicing of off-axis plies.

“The ±45° braided format gives our customers a real alternative to traditional woven prepreg, cutting scrap, speeding up layup and helping programs hit higher production rates without sacrificing structural performance,” says Jeff Cross, principal director for defense programs at Toray CMA. “It’s exactly the kind of manufacturing efficiency the aerospace and defense market has been asking for.”

The material is made possible through Toray CMA’s collaboration with A&P Technology, which has the ability to produce wide, continuous rolls of ±45° 2×2 twill fabric using Toray’s Torayca T1100 fiber. Marketed by A&P as TX-45, the format is supplied in continuous 45° bias rolls, eliminating the need for splices. In a trade study conducted at the National Institute for Aviation Research (NIAR) comparing 0°/90° prepreg layup of a spar to 45° prepreg layup, TX-45 prepreg enabled a 30% reduction in waste and a 40% reduction in layup time.

Source | Getty Images

IGCS International (Dallas, Texas), Lacks Carbon Fiber LLC (Grand Rapids, Mich., U.S.), a division of Lacks Enterprises and Toray Advanced Composites (Morgan Hill, Calif., U.S.) have formed a collaborative effort in support of the Drone Dominance Program, a U.S. Army initiative focused on strengthening domestic high-rate drone and unmanned aircraft system (UAS) manufacturing capabilities.

This collaboration will help bring advanced composite materials directly to the Department of Defense (DOD) for use in rapid and on-demand fabrication of drones for rapid operational development. The three organizations will align their capabilities across advanced composite materials, high-volume component manufacturing and direct-to-government contracting to support Drone Dominance objectives. Specifically, Toray Advanced Composites will be providing pre-impregnated carbon and glass fiber-reinforced composite materials, which will be laminated and processed by Lacks to meet the DOD’s component specifications, and then sold into the U.S. defense supply chain through IGCS. 

“Drone Dominance represents a critical opportunity to provide affordable, advanced materials direct to the end user in the U.S. defense industry,” says Russ Spears of IGCS International. “By working alongside Lacks Carbon Fiber and Toray Advanced Composites, we are supplementing the traditional OEM supply chain for unmanned platforms with components that can be integrated by the end user at the depot level, and even potentially in the field.”

Lacks Carbon Fiber sees an opportunity to leverage its large-volume automotive component manufacturing capabilities and strong knowledge of composite materials processing. 

Kaan prototype P1 during taxi test. Source | TAI footage posted on X

Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI, Ankara) has begun taxi trials of the first fully representative prototype of its Kaan fifth-generation combat aircraft, P1. A second fully representative Kaan prototype, known as P2, is also in an advanced stage of assembly and will fly after P1. TAI reports both prototypes will begin flight testing later in 2026.

Developed in collaboration with BAE Systems (London, U.K.), the Kaan is 20.3 meters long with a 13.4-meter wingspan and designed for multirole missions with a 55,000-foot service ceiling, Mach 1.8 top speed, low observability, internal weapon bays, high maneuverability, enhanced situational awareness, sensor fusion and supercruise capability. With this aircraft, Turkey is positioning itself among the limited number of nations producing fifth-generation fighter jets, including the U.S., Russia and China.

As reported in Aviation Week, the Turkish Air Force wants the 34-metric-ton twin-engine fighter to replace its large fleet of Lockheed Martin F-16s in the coming years. The first batch of around 20 aircraft should reach Turkish Air Force service before the end of the decade.

The first production aircraft will be powered by General Electric (Cincinnati, Ohio, U.S.) F110-GE-129 turbofans, with the U.S. clearing export of 80 engines this month, reports Turkiye Today. However, after initial Block 10 and 20 production, Kaan Block 30 and subsequent configurations will feature the domestically produced TF35000, being developed by TUSAS Engine Industries and TRMotor, according to Aviation Week. TAI plans to deliver the first batch of Kaan jets to the Turkish Air Force by the end of 2028, with the domestically developed engine expected to power the aircraft in the 2030s.

CFRP airframe components

According to a 2022 report by Indian Defense Analysis, the Kaan fighter features a carbon fiber-reinforced polymer (CFRP) fuselage developed by TAI’s Advanced Carbon Composites fuselage facility, which was also commissioned to produce fuselages for Lockheed Martin’s F-35 program.

The single-piece wing also uses composites, as reported in a March 2026 video by Jetline Marvel, featuring titanium in high-stress areas. Meanwhile high-strength aluminum alloys are reportedly incorporated in the aircraft’s forward fuselage.

Associate Professor Pavana Prabhakar’s lab group used a loom to weave a metal “yarn” into a carbon fiber fabric. The resulting material can drape over airframes and better disperse the electric charge of a lightning strike than standard carbon fiber-reinforced polymer composite materials. Source | University of Madison-Wisconsin

A University of Wisconsin-Madison engineering team has developed a hybrid fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) composite “blanket” designed to reduce lightning strike damage and improve protective coverage on aircraft and other high-flying vehicles. The research was published in the June 2026 issue of Composites, Part B: Engineering.

The material, developed by a team led by Pavana Prabhakar — the Charles G. Salman associate professor of civil and environmental engineering and mechanical engineering — integrates stainless steel yarn into carbon fiber fabric to create a path for dissipating electrical charge away from a lightning strike site. “These composites are not very good at conducting electricity,” Prabhakar says. “When lightning strikes these surfaces, it can cause quite a bit of damage because excessive heat builds up from poor electrical dissipation.”

Conventional expanded metallic foil lightning protection systems can delaminate on impact, further damaging the fuselage, and struggle to conform to the complex shapes common on emerging advanced air mobility (AAM) vehicles such as air taxis. Prabhakar’s team’s alternative is a drapable fabric — similar to a t-shirt or jacket — made of two metal-infused woven layers laid perpendicular to each other as sacrificial layers near a structure’s surface. That bidirectional layout spreads the electrical charge across the material’s outer surface, functioning like a fabric-based Faraday cage and reducing heat concentration at the strike point.

Testing showed the hybrid design lost just 0.03% weight in one simulated lightning strike test case, versus up to 3% weight loss without hybridization, a reduction of several orders of magnitude. Post-strike bending tests showed the material retained structural integrity. Prabhakar adds that the layer could be built into new aircraft structures or bonded onto existing aircraft for retrofits and repairs.

Next steps include testing copper yarn, which are more conductive than stainless steel, evaluating long-term durability and galvanic corrosion susceptibility, and investigating metal-coated carbon fibers.

The project originated as a 2023-24 senior design project under Ph.D. graduate Hridyesh Tewani, the paper’s lead author; former students Vincent Scheere, Madison Owens, Emilio Cumbajin and Camila De Leon are listed as co-authors.

Source | Web Industries

Precision converting and advanced material solutions provider Web Industries (Marlborough, Mass., U.S.) has plans to expand its Denton, Texas, facility footprint by 20%. New cutting and advanced sewing capabilities will support the increasing demand Web has seen in space launch and satellite manufacturing markets.

The Denton facility has historically supported commercial aerospace composites work — including components for engine nacelles and guide vanes — but has increasingly become the company’s center of excellence for space launch and satellite manufacturing. “Space is now over 25% of our aerospace business, and we believe it’s growing faster than commercial aerospace,” says Ben Winters, business development manager at Web Industries. “I don’t know if I can say we’re on every space launch, but I think we’re on about half of the launches globally in the last year.”

The enhanced facility will further strengthen Web Industries' ability to deliver precision multi-layer insulation (MLI), thermal protection systems (TPS) and complex soft goods assemblies used in launch vehicles, satellites and advanced aerospace applications. Web has delivered more than 75,000 MLI systems for space applications to date.

New capacities will include:

• Advanced cutting technologies for high-performance films, fabrics and composites materials
• Expanded sewing and assembly capabilities for complex, multi-layer soft goods.
• Enhanced throughput to support high-rate production programs and mission-critical builds.

“Part of the reason soft goods are used [in space] is that they’re more conformable and allow for design changes later in the cycle,” explains Michael Quarrey, VP corporate development, Web Industries. “ It can be weeks rather than months from design to installation on the satellite or spacecraft.” 

Web notes that it does also performs composites formatting work for space launch customers beyond soft goods, supplying materials used in components like launch vehicle tanks, fuselage structures and payload fairings.

The company also plans to add new manufacturing roles to the Denton facility, which will increase the production team by ~25%.

“This expansion positions Web Industries to meet the evolving needs of the space market,” says John Madej, president and CEO. “Our customers are building more satellites at higher rates than ever before, and they need partners who can deliver precision, repeatability and scale.”

The expansion is expected to be completed by the end of 2026, with production ramping shortly thereafter.

Also read “Web Industries expands thermoset slitting capacity in France.”