www.cascade-engineering.co.uk

Due to our experience in safety-critical stress analysis and structural design, we have been crucial to a number of Airbus programmes since our foundation.

We were especially instrumental in the development of the Airbus A350XWB Fixed Trailing Edge (FTE) on behalf of GE Aviation, who were one of the Risk Sharing Partners (RSP). This programme epitomised our provision of dependable engineering & certified solutions.

Our work spanned all disciplines of design & development for both the metallic and composite structures.

We were notable in acting as integrators, pulling together the international GE Aviation supply chain to provide Airbus and its extended stakeholders with the route to a successful programme.

UNDERSTANDThrough our experience on numerous previous projects, we were able to understand what was necessary to develop a completely new fixed trailing edge for an aircraft programme on a condensed timeline.

We weren’t surprised or fazed by the issues that arose during the development programme and because we understood the overall high level aircraft drivers, we were well positioned to make informed choices on a day-to-day basis in collaboration with all stakeholders within GE Aviation and their extended supply chain.

DESIGN & DEVELOPMENT OF THE FIXED TRAILING EDGE

DEPENDABLE ENGINEERING,

CERTIFIED SOLUTIONS

Client: Project: A350XWB

CASE STUDY 01 - AIRBUS A350XWB

CASE STUDY

01

We weren’t surprised or fazed by the issues that arose during the development programme and because we understood the overall high level aircraft drivers, we were well positioned to make informed choices on a day-to-day basis in collaboration with all stakeholders within GE Aviation and their extended supply chain.

CASE STUDY 01 - AIRBUS A350XWB www.cascade-engineering.co.uk

• Integration of design solutions, accounting for manufacturing supply line capabilities at the production rate required.

• Assessment of all PRA issues to develop philosophy through negotiation with the end customer and analysis as required to prove integrity.

• Compilation, checking and approval of reports, presentations and stress dossiers.

• Development of loads and stress Finite Element Models to show load paths (IFEM) and investigate in more detail (DFEM) areas of concern.

• Validation and verification of all models to ensure understanding.

• Analysis of sheet metal & integrally machined components.

• Analysis of composite structures.

• Traditional hand calculations as required to prove all primary components.

• Integration of major third party components.

• Designing out fatigue and damage tolerance issues early in the task.

• V&V activities across the FTE structure as necessary to ensure compliance.

• Definition of and support to Structural Testing.

• Report writing to end customer standard.

By the end of the programme we were the last supplier to leave the programme, having followed it from inception through to certification.

We believe our success to be attributed to our commitment to the success of the platform and our belief in making decisions, to the best of our experience and capability, in furtherance of our customer’s and the programme objectives.

www.cascade-engineering.co.uk

• Development of design, optimisation and certification analysis and compilation of reports, presentations and certification stress reports.

• Act as delegated signatories and compliance verification engineers (CVE) to ensure Stress justification satisfying FAR or EASA regulations.

• Ability to assess all types of structural analysis method and determine suitability or even develop methods to suit the circumstances, all in collaboration with the OEM.

• Ability to apply this efficiently when revisiting stress calculations performed by others, for new variants of an aircraft.

CASCADE ENGINEERING HALLMARKS

ENGINEER

When GE Aviation agreed to become an RSP on the A350XWB programme, it needed to rapidly assimilate the new architecture developed by Airbus for the Fixed Trailing Edge. This incorporated a novel approach to the Main Landing Gear support mechanism which had a significant impact on the layout of the trailing edge, which was already unique in being manufactured significantly from carbon composite material.

This presented significant challenges to all the teams involved in the development of the wing, from the Landing Gear team itself, the Rear Spar and Upper & Lower Covers teams to the moveable flap, spoiler and aileron teams, plus the hydraulic & electrical teams that were dispersed throughout the UK, Germany, France & Spain.

These all had to be integrated into the fixed trailing edge along with the GE Aviation structure. This was the challenge for the team that we were part of and played an instrumental role within.

We provided an integral part of the structural design & analysis integration solution, where we were regularly embedded within our clients’ engineering team and provided structural analysis leader and decision making capability.

Significant Involvement:

• Provision of lead engineers, approvers and onsite integration at Airbus and GE Aviation.

• Co-ordination of the RSP supply chain from a technical perspective.

• Integration effort with interfacing Airbus, its suppliers and RSPs as necessary.

• GE Aviation Representative at many RSP/Airbus meetings.

• Assessment of sizing data provided through the RSP supply chain.

• Preparation, Support and presentation of PDR & CDR data.

• Approval of data for B-Scheme, C-Scheme/C-Maturity & DFM.

• Assessment and development of structural design solutions for issues arising.

• Seamless end to end support.

• Working closely with manufacturers to ensure the designs are produced correctly.

• Analysis of metallic semi-monocoque aluminium structure under current FAR or EASA requirements.

• Analysis of complete structural elements, such as a Rear Fuselage, Vertical Tail and Elevator.

• Analysis of mechanical systems, such as an Elevator Control System.

• Large data manipulation for results taken from Finite Element models, to allow multiple load cases and structures to be analysed in an efficient, logical and repeatable manner.

www.cascade-engineering.co.uk CASE STUDY 01 - AIRBUS A350XWB

CASE STUDY 02 - E.I.S. AIRCRAFTwww.cascade-engineering.co.ukwww.cascade-engineering.co.uk CASE STUDY 04 - PILATUS PC-24

DEPENDABLE ENGINEERING,

CERTIFIED SOLUTIONS

Cascade EngineeringBuilding B, Riverside WayCamberleyGU15 3YL

+44 1252 594121info@cascade-engineering.co.uk

www.cascade-engineering.co.uk

Cascade Engineering is a trading name of Cascade Aerospace Engineering Limited. Reg. No. 05838778

This led to an exemplary level of customer satisfaction and cooperation throughout this and over many successive projects.

DELIVERWorking on Airbus projects is always challenging, as is the nature of these flagship projects, none more so than the A350XWB, whose programme was condensed further than any project to date.

We consistently rose to this challenge and made things happen. However, this was never at the cost of the effort that went in to ensuring our delivered design solutions, static and F&DT analyses, or finite element modelling were thoroughly controlled and reviewed by highly experienced stress signatories, before being formally released to the customer.

This led to an exemplary level of customer satisfaction and cooperation throughout this and over many successive projects.

FACT FILECascade has provided structural design & analysis support for the following major Airbus programmes over 15 years:

A350XWB

• Fixed Trailing Edge Composite Panels• Trailing Edge Support Structure• Rear Fuselage*• Landing Gear

A320 Sharklet/NEO*• Wing Root• Flap Track Support Structure• Engine Pylon Support Structure• Sharklet Device

A380• Maintenance Manuals• Fixed Trailing Edge

A400M• Flap Track Support Structure• Refuelling Probe

This is via companies such as GE Aviation, Assystem (now Expleo)* & Sogiclaire, on behalf of Airbus or Safran and represents an ideal route for our future involvement.

• Developed new approaches to load correlation, including SQL database solutions to excessive load case numbers provided by Airbus.

• Developed, ran, validated and produced all loads for the Inner FTE FEMs

• Considered all aspects related to structural integrity

• Approval release of components into manufacture (DFM)

• Approved supporting documentation for DFM & 1st Flight Clearance

• Resolved multi-disciplinary, multi-organisational issues throughout

CASCADE HIGHLIGHTS

• Cascade was involved from an early stage of the development from A-Scheme through Entry into Service and on into certification

• Provided the main Stress Integrator for the Fixed Trailing Edge (FTE) Risk Sharing Partner (RSP – GE Aviation) for over 2 years.

• Instrumental in the development of the FTE for the RSP and fully integrated into their teams

• Approval release of all Outer FTE Trailing Edge Details (TED – Hinge Ribs, Actuator Brackets, etc) at B-Scheme

• Led the Inner FTE teams through C-Scheme, to DFM, 1st flight and on into certification – including all metallic TED and composite TESS