Preparing UK aerospace for the high-rate era
Charting a decade of composite wing development for the next generation future of flight
Developing next-generation composite wing structures is one of aerospace’s toughest engineering challenges and demands a depth of technical capability that few organisations can provide. Airbus needed a long-term partner capable of operating across the full development pyramid, from material characterisation through to full-scale manufacture. This is in tandem to also helping to reduce the cost, lead time and complexity inherent in large composite aerostructure programmes.
Challenge
The challenge wasn't just technical. It called for a team that could work as a trusted extension of Airbus' own engineering function, moving at pace across successive programmes without losing continuity of knowledge or capability. It also required greater digital traceability - the ability to connect design, engineering, planning and quality systems in ways that support faster decision-making and tighter process control.
And looking further ahead, the next-generation single-aisle platforms will demand a step change in composite production rates compared to today’s wide body composite wings.
Closing that gap is not an incremental improvement. It is a fundamental manufacturing challenge. Hitting those rates will require not just faster physical processes, but smarter shopfloors: automation, real-time data, and connected systems working together to reduce rework and improve consistency.
A partnership approach
Since 2011, NCC has embedded alongside Airbus's engineering teams, drawing on a composites knowledge base built through programmes including TANGO (Technology Application to Near Term Business Goals and Objective), ALCAS (Advanced Low-Cost Aircraft Structures) and HiVOL (Next Generation Composite Wing) — all developed in Filton, Bristol, where much of NCC's current Aerospace team began their careers within the Airbus Composite Structures Development Centre.
Across Wing of the Future, Wing of Tomorrow and the eXtra Performance Wing programme, NCC tackled a different set of technical challenges for each programme.
On Wing of Tomorrow, that meant characterising over many different material types, running full coupon-to-component development cycles, and finally manufacturing three 17-metre full-scale upper wing covers. State of the art, high-rate manufacturing equipment was developed which was designed and procured as part of an Aerospace Technology Institute (ATI) funded program that demonstrated wide format, dry fibre deposition at volumes well in excess of legacy Automated Tape Laying (ATL) deposition rates.
This was delivered and verified for integration into wing box structures used in Airbus full-scale structural test.
On eXtra Performance Wing, NCC delivered flight-certified parts with Certificates of Conformity. At the same time, it trialled new tooling concepts specifically designed to reduce manufacturing cost and lead time. Alongside the physical innovation, NCC applied digital process tools to improve manufacturing consistency and support the conformance data required for flight certification. These were validated in real manufacturing conditions, not modelled in theory.
Over more than a decade, engineers from NCC have worked side by side with Airbus, effectively acting as an extension of its engineering team. This was not as a supplier at arm's length, but as an integrated technical partner, maintaining that continuity across more than a decade of successive programmes.
That foundation is now being built upon directly. HRMCap - NCC's £15.8m High-Rate Manufacturing Capability programme, funded by the ATI - is the next step. It takes what these programmes have proven and closes the gap between current composite manufacturing rates and what next-generation platforms will actually require. Critically, HRMCap does not treat physical and digital capability as separate investments. Sensors, real-time production data and connected quality systems are integral to the programme. Because high-rate manufacturing at the scale required is not achievable without them. HRMCap is open-access infrastructure, available to the entire UK aerospace sector.
Impact & next steps
The results speak for themselves. Airbus received full-scale wing covers ready for structural test integration, flight-cleared hardware for an active flight programme, and a continuous pipeline of manufacturing innovation. All without needing to build that capability in-house.
Today, NCC's current collaborations with Airbus are directly applying this knowledge to the high-rate manufacturing materials and processes required for the next-generation single-aisle aircraft. This work increasingly integrates digital development alongside physical process development. This is vital as the manufacturers who win workshare on next-generation platforms will need to demonstrate not only can they make parts, but that they can make them consistently, traceably, and at speed.
Across the wider UK aerospace sector, HRMCap represents the logical conclusion of more than a decade of programme delivery. The accumulated knowledge from TANGO through to Wing Accelerator has shaped exactly what capability needs to be built, and NCC is now building it. This includes the hybrid skills pipeline needed to integrate hands-on composite engineering with digital fluency, and the industrial-scale demonstrators that show what high-rate, digitally enabled manufacture looks like. These were validated in real manufacturing conditions rather than relying on theoretical models. For UK manufacturers, this means access to world-class composite manufacturing infrastructure when it matters most.
Together, the work done across these programmes has not only advanced Airbus's wing development, but it has also helped build the manufacturing capability, expertise and confidence the UK will need to compete for the next generation aircraft. As an Airbus spokesperson reflected, "this kind of long-term collaboration is something the company greatly values, particularly with technology centres such as NCC."
