TenCate and TAPAS partners towards next phase of collaboration with Airbus

June 2013

At the Paris Air Show in France the Dutch Minister of Economic Affairs, Henk Kamp, has signed a letter of intent (LOI) for the proposed extension of the Thermoplastic Affordable Primary Aircraft Structure consortium (TAPAS), in which eight Dutch companies and institutes from the aviation industry have been working with Airbus on groundbreaking technological innovations for aviation since 2009. An innovative fuselage panel for Airbus, which is made of thermoplastic composite from TenCate Advanced Composites and produced by Airbus, Fokker Aerostructures and other TAPAS partners, is also being unveiled at the Paris Air Show.

 The LOI aims to extend the existing research agreement of the TAPAS consortium and focuses on the continuing development of thermoplastic composites for wing and tail applications, for support structures for engines, and for fuselages. TAPAS 2 will be the successor of TAPAS 1, which was initiated in 2009 with the aim of expanding the development of thermoplastic composites for Airbus aircraft design and bringing these materials to a higher technology readiness level.