
A new engineering center of excellence in Wolverhampton, UK, will lead Collins Aerospace’s efforts to bring more advanced electric thrust reversers to market. The RTX group subsidiary announced the opening of the facility on June 9 and also confirmed plans for a new production line for its elecTRAS thrust reversers at Colomiers in France, next to the Airbus final assembly line in Toulouse.
According to Ajay Mahajan, president of Collins’ advanced structures business unit, the company is building on technology developed for the A350 widebody to provide more advanced electric thrust reversers for the next-generation single-aisle airliners anticipated from Airbus and Boeing. He told a press briefing that replacing hydraulic and pneumatic controls for thrust reversers with electric controls has simplified their operations significantly by removing the need for ducts, tubes, and fluids.