Four companies win innovation award for thermoplastic tailplane of AW169

Four companies – Fokker Aerostructures of the Netherlands, AgustaWestland of UK and Italy, TenCate Advanced Composites of the Netherlands and Ticona GmbH of Germany –  have jointly won the JEC innovation award for the first thermoplastic composite horizontal tailplane of the AgustaWestland AW169 new-generation helicopter. The award will be officially presented to the partners at the opening ceremony of the JEC Composites Show, to be held in Paris, France on Tuesday March 12.

As the first of its kind in the aircraft industry, this main load-bearing primary structure convinced the renowned international experts of the JEC jury of its true innovative character. The value of this innovation lies primarily in a 15% weight reduction compared with other composite solutions, resulting in lower NOx/CO₂ emissions and lower fuel consumption.

The award proves that sustainable innovations creating added value for the aerospace industry result from this close collaboration between the OEM AgustaWestland and the specialist supply chain, consisting of Fokker Aerostructures, TenCate Advanced Composites and Ticona.