 From 32-meter wingspans to 1/16-inch-diameter fasteners holding an airplane together, Alcoa’s aerospace portfolio is diversified and strong. “When it comes to sales, product development and growth, we’re an industry leader in every one of our segments,” said Bill Christopher, president of Engineered Products & Solutions and director of the Aerospace Market Sector team.
At about $3.1 billion, the aerospace portfolio accounts for approximately 10% of Alcoa’s overall sales.
 Bright Outlook Ahead
The future continues to look bright, with the world aircraft fleet expected to more than double by 2024. Recent industry aircraft orders have been at almost unbelievable levels—nearly 4,000 during the combined two-year period 2005/06—thanks primarily to emerging markets in China, India and the Middle East.
One plane gaining much attention is the Airbus A380. “The exciting part of this plane from an Alcoa perspective is that the aluminum supplied for 30 A380s is equivalent to 270 A320s or Boeing 727s. This leads to a very good outlook for Alcoa,” said Helmut Wieser, Executive Vice President, Alcoa Group President - Global Rolled Products
“There’s been a lot written about composites in aerospace, especially in reference to the Boeing 787,” said Christopher. When you look at Alcoa’s content across our segments on the 787, it’s very close to what was on the 767.” In fact, the 787 will be the third highest revenue plane for Alcoa in the Boeing fleet.
This is in large part due to Alcoa’s diverse aerospace portfolio that spans three key areas:- Structures, which includes flat-rolled products and hard alloy extrusions, account for 37% of our aerospace portfolio. “Alcoa has very unique capabilities,” said Wieser. “We developed many of the alloys used in aerospace today, and our research and technology capabilities are a valued resource.” When it comes to size, no one makes it bigger: we manufacture 32-meter plate for the Boeing 747 and Airbus A380 wing skins, and 3.4-meter-wide fuselage skin sheet for the A380. “We are a leading supplier of aluminum for airframe structure to all four major airframe manufacturers,” said Mick Wallis, president of North American Rolled Products. “We are a significant player in the business jet market and the emerging light jet market.”
- Power and Propulsion, the business that combines Alcoa Howmet with Alcoa’s Aerospace and Industrial Forged Product business, accounts for 38% of our aerospace portfolio. We are a leading manufacturer of aero engine airfoils—turbine airfoils are the largest segment within Power and Propulsion. We also make structural castings out of titanium, aluminum and nickel-based alloys for aerospace engines, and more. Finally, use of our forgings ranges from aircraft wheel and brake systems to large structural forgings. “Thanks to significant productivity gains via ABS, we’ve seen our margin as a percentage of revenue improve by 87.7%,” said Ray Mitchell, president of Alcoa Power & Propulsion. Record load factors on commercial airlines—as high as 74% worldwide—will help fuel demand for spare engines, positively affecting the Howmet part of the business.
- Fastening Systems is comprised of specialty engineered fastening systems ranging from high temperature, high-strength fasteners for both airframe and engine applications to very complex latches, to installation tool systems and machine components such as hydraulic fittings. Accounting for 25% of aerospace revenues, AFS fasteners exhibit critical dimensional characteristics controlled within very tightly controlled tolerances—sometimes a few tenths of a thousandth of an inch. Olivier Jarrault, president of Alcoa Fastening Systems (AFS), illustrates his product’s strength with this example:
“A titanium 3/16-inch-diameter fastener would support the weight of an average family car such as a Toyota Camry. Increase the size to one inch in diameter and the single fastener could support the weight of 50 or more Toyota Camrys.” Alcoa is proud to supply more than one million of our fasteners for every A380 and 787 produced.
Shaping the Future
How has Alcoa achieved its reputation of innovation in the marketplace? Through a combination of technology, connection to customers and early involvement in their new aircraft programs.
“Customers are looking for materials that will do things better than they’ve done before, whether it’s lightness or strength or damage tolerance. They’re always looking for improvement,” said Wallace.
“Our success is built on deep customer relationships in which we collaborate on products, working as a partner during new platform design. We’re helping to shape what the aerospace industry will look like in the future...and the role Alcoa will have in making that future a reality,” said Christopher.
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