Collins Aerospace Opens Wolverhampton Test Centre for Electric Thrust Reverser Systems
The fully operational modular facility is intended to speed certification of electric nacelle actuation and cut aircraft-system weight by up to 20 percent through elimination of hydraulic interfaces.
Overview
- Collins announced the Wolverhampton Engineering Center of Excellence is fully operational on Thursday and houses a modular, reconfigurable test facility for aircraft actuation systems.
- The centre can simulate conditions from individual components to fully integrated systems so engineers can find and fix issues earlier in development and reduce programme delays.
- Collins says its elecTRAS electric thrust reverser actuation removes hydraulic interfaces and fluids and can lower nacelle actuation weight by 15–20 percent at the aircraft-system level.
- The facility co-locates elecTRAS development with nacelle actuation design work to speed engineering collaboration on motor control, algorithms and system integration.
- Collins built the centre on proven elecTRAS experience: the system is in service on the Airbus A350 family and had logged more than 15 million flight hours and 2.2 million cycles on over 700 aircraft by 2025.