Gary Elliott • 06.03.25 • 2 min read

With the composites community gathered at JEC World in Paris, ATI CEO Gary Elliott explores the composites opportunity driven by technology breakthroughs in the sector’s search for efficiencies.

Since the first use of composites on commercial aircraft in the 1950s, there has been an accelerating shift from metals to composites as the sector chases efficiencies across manufacturing and operations.

Being significantly lighter with aerodynamics benefits and complex single-piece manufacturing capabilities, composites have become integral to modern aircraft. Today’s newest widebody commercial aircraft, the Boeing 787 and Airbus A350 are around 50% composite by weight compared to 6% on the Boeing 747.

Composites have been adopted into widebody wings, fuselage and empennage structures, with metallic structures focusing on demanding and specialised functions such as engines, landing gears and structural connections.

Narrowbody aircraft, such as A320, feature composite empennage and nacelle constructions, while the newer A220 also includes composite wings and control surfaces including those manufactured in Belfast.

In the past decade £480m of grant funding aligned with our market-led technology strategy has been invested in composite material research and technology through the ATI Programme, amounting to £827m when you include industrial funding.

This investment has driven improvements in composite design, certification, manufacturing efficiency and through life engineering services, as well as step changes in cost and quality of production systems.

These improvements have allowed the UK to develop world-class capability however the majority of composite aerostructures flying today are actually manufactured by European, US and Japanese companies. With future aircraft platforms set to incorporate further use of composites, this presents an opportunity for the UK.

The strong industrial presence of aerospace primes, Tier1s and innovative SMEs underpinned by a world-class network of research and academic organisations puts the UK in an ideal place to compete. We have the component parts to seize the composites opportunity securing market share to deliver on our growth and environmental goals. Next week, we’ll share our vision for composites in UK aerospace.

Cover image ©Airbus/National Composites Centre