The overall objective of ITEMB is to propose a new generation of Main Landing Gear Bay in the scenario of a Body Landing Gear with the intent of reach the best Design to Cost.
The challenging targets, compared to present Single Aisle Aircraft solution, of weight saving (5-10%), cost saving (5%), high production rate (60 A/C per month) and Project maturity at Level of TRL3, have been faced successfully by the ITEMB Consortium made by: PROTOM as Engineering and leader, LAER for Manufacturing and University of Naples for readiness assessments and testing.
This scenario means: more economic competitiveness for European Industry in manufacturing aeronautical structure, reduced fleet maintenance cost and contribution to fuel saving.
The two main components of the Maing Landing Gear Bay are the Horizontal "Roof" (about 2,7m large x 2,4m long) and the Rear Pressure Bulkhead (about 1,5m deep x 2,7m wide). A “bag against bag” technology with the target of Monolithic, One Shot Cured Structure as much as possible to reduce parts, assembly and manufacturing flow, has been adopted and the capability to get a good product for a Landing Gear Bay has been achieved.
At the end of the Project, the all Composite Structure (Horizontal and Vertical Bulkheads) Weight saving is predicted to be about 21% and saving on assembly time up to 95% (using an “hole to hole assembly approach, mainly due to the huge reduction of fastening, compared to a similar structure A350 style.
In the second reporting period design and process steps have been further analyzed and optimized to more reduce weight and cost and produce a representative large technology demo together with more details demo. So layups have been designed, tooling and process steps detailed, template for assembly cost agreed with Airbus and TRL3 assessed on the basis of Airbus check list. Benefits of the ITEMB approach are secured by a managed risk level and manufacturing trials and testing coupons have been the main risk mitigation actions.
A plus of the project is the applicability of the resulting design/process to other families of structural items (i.d movable surfaces) and also in presence of architectural change of the Landing Gear or Fuselage.
In conclusion ITEMB Consortium is now in possess of the technology that could be easily scaled to future MLG application.
