TAPAS

Airbus, Fokker and TenCate are set to enter into an agreement for the next stage of the Thermoplastic Affordable Primary Aircraft Structure innovation programme (TAPAS).

The partnership started in 2010 with other partners, and primarily focuses on further increase of the proportion of thermoplastic composites in current aircraft.

The latest TAPAS 2 agreement will now run until the end of 2017 with a budget of €24.3m. The Netherlands Ministry of Economic Affairs is funding the ongoing partnership with a loan of €9.5m.

The agreement includes development of a trial tail section made entirely of thermoplastic composite material.

A thermoplastic fuselage panel was produced and presented as demonstrator under TAPAS 1 agreement.

Thermoplastic composites enable efficient processing in production, lower costs of structural components as well as a high-level of fire safety, while allowing for about 15% weight savings, compared to traditional aircraft materials.

"The agreement includes development of a trial tail section made entirely of thermoplastic composite material."

In addition, the high-strength, lightweight composites lower fuel consumption, and increase the range and capacity of the aircraft.

TAPAS consortium includes companies and knowledge institutes in the Dutch aerospace industry that work together with Airbus on the development of thermoplastic composite applications in aircraft fuselages, wings and tail sections.

The TAPAS partners from Dutch SMEs include Airborne Composites, KVE, DTC, KE-works and CODET.

The Netherlands National Aerospace Laboratory (NLR), Delft University of Technology and the University of Twente are the Dutch knowledge partners in the programme.

Image: Thermoplastic composites allow for about 15% weight savings, compared to traditional aircraft materials. Photo: courtesy of Koninklijke Ten Cate nv.

Defence Technology