Airbus joins Commonwealth Center for Advanced Manufacturing

Published July 16, 2014 by Robert Powell, III

European aircraft manufacturer Airbus has joined the Commonwealth Center for Advanced Manufacturing (CCAM), a Virginia-based collaborative research organization.

The France-based company  becomes the 19th industrial member of CCAM, which is housed near a Rolls-Royce jet components factory in Prince George County.

“Airbus was founded on innovation – we operate daily knowing that using and developing leading-edge technology is a requirement in our business, and CCAM is founded on that mindset,” Charles Champion, executive vice president for engineering at Airbus, said in a statement.  “This union is a natural one.  Tapping the intellects of the greatest researchers in the industry benefits everyone involved from the developers to the end users.”

The company announced its membership with CCAM during the Farnborough International Airshow in the United Kingdom.

“The addition of a major player like Airbus is a great testament to the pivotal role CCAM plays as a centerpiece of Virginia’s efforts to promote R&D and technology commercialization, and contribute to a growing Virginia economy,” Gov. Terry McAuliffe said in a statement.

Airbus is an “organizing industry member” of CCAM,  a group of members that  agree to a long-term commitment to the organization. According to the CCAM website, these members have influence over its management, vision and research plans. They also appoint one voting member each to the CCAM board of directors, industry operations board and the technical advisory council.

Airbus has manufactured single-aisle and wide-body commercial aircraft, military airlifters, cargo transports and business aircraft for more than 40 years.
CCAM member companies and its academic and government partners collaborate on research to lead to innovative manufacturing practices in aerospace, defense, transportation, consumer electronics and other industries.

In addition to Airbus, CCAM industry members include Canon Virginia Inc., Chromalloy, Newport News Shipbuilding, Rolls-Royce, Sandvik Coromant, Siemens, Oerlikon Metco, Aerojet Rocketdyne, Blaser Swisslube, Hermle Machine Co., Mitutoyo, Paradigm Precision, Buehler, Cool Clean Technologies, GF AgieCharmilles, Mechdyne, National Instruments and Spatial Integrated Systems.

The government member is NASA Langley Research Center. Academic partners are the University of Virginia, Virginia State University, Virginia Tech and Old Dominion University.