Textiles make it big in the aerospace industry

18 May '05

7 min read

AmSafe Bridport, formerly known as Bridport Aviation, designs and manufactures 9g barrier and bellyhold nets for aircraft builders and converters. As the dominant specialist, the company offers a complete design, manufacture and support service for all types of freighter and passenger aircraft, a strategy that has more than reaped dividends.

In recent years, AmSafe Bridport's products have been selected for virtually every new civil aircraft. This includes 100% supply to Boeing and Airbus. However, it is in the fast growing freighter conversion market that the company's expertise is really evident.

In the last five years, the company's products have been chosen for all OEM P2F conversion programmes, as well as a number of independent P2F STCs. For operators, full repair and spares support is provided through AmSafe Bridport's locations worldwide.

Long established as a specialist in ULD nets, and cargo restraint, 5 years ago AmSafe Bridport began to focus on barrier nets. The portfolio was further expanded through its 2001 acquisition of Air Cargo Equipment's 9g net range for established freighters.

Whilst developing a market for a textile-based barrier solution might have seemed a unusual business opportunity, to AmSafe Bridport, a company that has over 300 years' experience in engineered textiles, it made perfect sense. Paul Goodman, head of technical sales at AmSafe Bridport explains:

“Textiles are ideal for use in the aerospace industry. They are light-weight, cost-effective, durable, and easy to repair and maintain. Most importantly, they can be engineered to be extremely strong. The textiles that are used in a 9g net are some of the strongest materials available anywhere and include Kevlar, Vectran, and Dyneema, fibres of which can be manufactured with a tensile strength up to 15 x that of steel. The result is a net that can restrain a wide-body's payload at a force of 9g within a carefully defined envelope measuring as little as 30 inches, or even less if the aircraft's structure allows. Put into perspective, 500t – say around 400 family cars, could comfortably hang from the net. This means that not only can our barriers comfortably meet all airworthiness and safety regulations, they also ensure that unnecessary weight, and therefore cost, is eliminated.”

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