Daedalus

This project will bring together state of the art material innovations to develop structurally lighter and tougher aircraft cabin flooring panels that can meet the stringent Fire, Smoke and Toxicity (FST) requirements of commercial aerospace interior applications. Such light-weight, damage resistant panels would substantially reduce the lifecycle operating cost of cabin flooring and substantially reduce CO2 emissions through reduced fuel burn. Experimental mechanical and FST testing will be combined and enhanced with numerical methods to create a quick and dynamic development process.

These innovations include the use of novel polymer resin formulations and proprietary foaming processes recently developed (but for other applications) to provide better impact resistance and strength after impact than existing cabin flooring materials, as well as controlled and understood fire-resistant and fire-retardant mechanisms. Collaboration with the HAZE lab at Imperial College London (ICL) will be key to better understanding the physical phenomena dominating the ignition, combustion and flame propagation of the different materials under aerospace FST testing regimes.

By improving the damage resistance of cabin flooring panels the lifecycle maintenance and operating costs of not only cabin flooring panels, but entire commercial aircraft, can be reduced . Additionally, the weight savings in the panels will lead to substantial reductions in fuel burn associated with the panel lifecycle in, and consequent CO2 emissions from, commercial aircraft.