New Dreamliner carries the pride of Rotherham

The airliner has been dogged by delays, but it finally lifted from a runway just outside Seattle, Washington State, two years after Boeing had first hoped to have it airborne–carrying Rotherham technology with it

The new generation of aircraft is the first to be made with a majority of lightweight composite materials.

There are some 840 Dreamliners on order, with the first scheduled for delivery late next year.

But what most people in the UK don't know about the 787 is that a quarter of the value of the aircraft comes from the UK–with Rotherham playing a major role.

When bidding for the landing gear was opened, manufacturer Messier-Dowty came to the University of Sheffield Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre with Boeing, at the Advanced Manufacturing Park in Rotherham, to see if it was feasible to make landing gear parts from a new grade of titanium alloy. Previously, landing gear had been made from steel, and going from steel to titanium was a big step.

A bigger jump still was going from steel to an unknown grade of titanium–in this case Titanium 5553–a high-strength, low-weight material that can be made very hard. 

Getting this safety-critical part right was especially important because it has to be as strong as possible.

Airline companies want it to be not only strong but as light as possible to reduce the amount of fuel consumption and environmental impact.

Using a combination of manufacturing techniques, the AMRC satisfied both these needs and substantially reduced the development time for working Ti5553.

Critically, this enabled the manufacturing times to be reduced along with the cost and enabled Messier-Dowty to win the Boeing order.

This is the first time it has been won by a company outside the USA.

The Dreamliner was first unveiled in July 2007, with Boeing claiming it was its most high-tech, fuel-efficient jet of all time. Made of 50 per cent composite materials, which are much lighter than the aluminium from which conventional jets are constructed, the 787 promises to save airlines massive sums in fuel and maintenance costs in comparison with their current fleets.

Boeing signed up early buyers for the Dreamliner but subsequently lost out to its European arch-rival Airbus as delays in getting the 787 airborne disappointed customers.

Now all that is in the past and South Yorkshire holidaymakers who fly the 787 can take heart and pride from the fact that one of the most important parts of their flight, the landing gear, was developed on the Rotherham-Sheffield border.