MICHAEL PHELAN / CHELTENHAM
Smiths Aerospace aims to capitalise on its tier one role in the Airbus A380 programme by positioning itself as a landing gear systems integration specialist for future programmes including the Boeing 7E7.
Steve Lewis, managing director of Smiths Aerospace Actuation Systems in Cheltenham, UK, says the company's integration role and the new procurement model used for the A380 forms part of the division's strategy for future projects. "We see ourselves as the leading landing-gear systems supplier, with an eventual target of 80-90% of the market," says Lewis.
Actuation Systems, which has an annual turnover of around $300 million, is using its A380 work to promote itself as a "cockpit totarmac" landing gear extension and retraction system (LGERS) integrator, and hopes to emulate its A380 success on Boeing's proposed 7E7.
Smiths has been downselected by Boeing for the LGERS on the 7E7 alongside Messier-Bugatti. It is one of six work packages for which the company has been downselected, with the proposed integrated modular-type avionics architecture among the others.
Rob Neal, engineering director at Actuation Systems, says that while landing gear structural elements tend to get more attention, systems make up a significant proportion of work packages.
"For future programmes we would like to expand our LGERS to include other functions such as braking and steering controls. We want to be the supplier of all landing gear systems," he says.
Smiths plans to deliver the first LGERS software to Airbus next month, followed by hardware in December for Airbus's landing gear systems test rig in Filton, UK. The company is using highly accelerated life testing to qualify its hydro-mechanical systems.
Source: Flight International
