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ATK delivers 20,000 composite parts for Airbus A350 XWB

02 Apr '14

2 min read

ATK and Airbus Americas celebrated a successful partnership of working together to support air transport customers around the world, and reaching a milestone of successfully completing the 20,000th ATK composite part in support of the A350 XWB.

The composite stringers and frames, the equivalent of approximately 30 ship sets, are a demonstration of ATK’s ability to meet customers’ high quality standards and delivery requirements.

Joy de Lisser, vice president and general manager of ATK Aerospace Structures, Daniel Wenninger, senior director A350 XWB U.S. program for Airbus Americas, and Guy Hicks, senior vice president government relations, Airbus Group, joined several U.S., state and local dignitaries including U.S. Rep.

Rob Bishop, executive director of the Utah Governor’s Office of Economic Development, Spencer Eccles and Clearfield City Mayor, Mark Shepherd to celebrate both the milestone and the successful partnership with employees.

“This is not only another significant milestone in our long-term partnership with Airbus on the A350 XWB program, it also supports composite manufacturing in Utah as ATK expects to add 1,000 jobs over the next 20 years,” said de Lisser. “With the hands-on training we offer, these positions will provide an opportunity to develop high-tech skills to build a long-term career in the aerospace industry.”

"We at Airbus recognize and appreciate the proactivity of the ATK employees that made the achievement we're celebrating possible. We view our relationship with ATK as a true partnership." said Wenninger.

ATK’s proprietary automated stiffener forming machines (ASFM) have been instrumental in the development and manufacture of high-rate production composite stringers and frames, and contributory in reaching this milestone. This highly engineered technology is essential to manufacture the A350 XWB composite stringers and frames, which enables ATK to produce extremely high quality, dimensionally precise and highly repeatable composite components.

The A350 XWB work is performed at ATK’s 615,000 square foot Aircraft Commercial Center of Excellence (ACCE) facility in Clearfield, Utah.

ATK