Horizontal tail-plane structural manufacturing services

The Horizontal tail planes is a horizontal tail-plane structural manufacturing service from Aernnova with aerospace-grade grade and dual-use market. Horizontal tail planes are aerostructure manufacturing services from Aernnova, covering the horizontal stabilizer (HTP) of fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters, supplied either as design-and-build or as build-to-print work.

Aernnova's programme list shows the scope it takes on for an empennage customer. In design-and-build programmes the company handles both the engineering and the production of the stabilizer, including leading and trailing edges, detail parts, joint boxes and equipping on the largest assignments. In build-to-print programmes it manufactures detail parts, ribs, skins and subassemblies to the customer's released drawings. One programme is purely engineering support, for optimization of a horizontal stabilizer.

The structural type is empennage work, and the material depends on the aircraft. Composite parts appear most often in the list, including elevators, HTP ribs, skins and miscellaneous detail parts, while metallic detail parts and subassemblies are also supplied. For an integrator this means the material, the stacking and the production process are defined by the customer aircraft programme rather than by a catalogue item, so the first step in a purchase is a statement of work with the drawing package or the design requirements.

The documented programmes show the platform classes served. Commercial airliner work includes Airbus A350 XWB, A320, A330 and A380 elevator and stabilizer scope, Embraer E170/190 and E175/190/195-E2 stabilizers, and Bombardier CRJ-700/900 stabilizers and elevators. Defence transport work includes the Embraer C-390 and Airbus A400M, and the Airbus C295/N235 elevators. Executive aircraft are represented by the Embraer Praetor 500/600, and rotorcraft by the Airbus Tiger and the Sikorsky S-92/H92, where Aernnova works on the horizontal stabilizer.

Integration is handled at programme level. The stabilizer interfaces with the rear fuselage, the elevator and the actuation and control system, and these interfaces are fixed by the aircraft design authority. Aernnova supplies the structure as detail parts, subassemblies or complete stabilizer structures, depending on the contract, so that the customer or a tier-one integrator can complete the final assembly.

Typical customers are airframers and tier-one structure integrators that need a qualified source of tail structure for commercial, defence, executive or helicopter programmes. Programme owners that already have a released design use the build-to-print route, while those that need engineering capacity for the stabilizer use the design-and-build route.