Bombardier appears to have scored a manufacturing first with its specially designed CSeries composite wing demonstrator assembly rig. The integrally stiffened upper skin panel for the first CSeries outer wing was assembled in the rig.
Bombardier believes the skin panel is the largest aerospace composite component to have been manufactured using resin transfer infusion technology. The skin was produced in a single shot resin injection.
Bombardier's Belfast site in Northern Ireland is responsible for the design, development and manufacture of the complete wing for 110/130-seat CSeries, which is expected to enter service in 2013. The airframer says it is "confident that the RTI process is an excellent method of manufacturing very large and complex one-piece composite structures".