TenCate is involved in the Airbus partnership through its composite materials consisting of a compound of carbon or glass fibres that, with the addition of synthetic resins, are consolidated into plate material and marketed under the name TenCate Cetex®. The material can be industrially processed into moulded parts for wings, interiors and other aircraft parts.

Group Director Frank Meurs of TenCate Advanced Composites, Europe, says: “Now that TenCate Cetex is being incorporated into aircraft interiors and secondary structural parts in an ever wider series of applications, we are approaching the moment when the major primary structure parts of aircraft will be made of thermoplastic composite. Thanks to our unidirectional tape technology, a lightweight fuselage of thermoplastic composite, for example, can also be built in the near future.”

Airbus has also extended its partnerships with Stork Fokker AESP and the Netherlands Aerospace Group. The entry of another six Dutch industrial companies and knowledge institutes active in the Dutch aviation industry, to the Thermoplastic Affordable Primary Aircraft Structure (TAPAS) consortium is expected within a few weeks.