Alcoa exec highlights aluminum's successes, shares bright outlook

Once thought to have a limited future in aerospace, aluminum continues to innovate and offer competitive products for a wide range of both wide body and narrow body aircraft. That, and aluminum’s bright future, was the message Dan Goodman, director of marketing, Alcoa Aerospace, told attendees at the American Metal Market (AMM) Aerospace Materials Conference on April 15 in Pittsburgh.

"A few years ago, the industry consensus was that composites were the default material of choice,” said Goodman. “That is no longer the case – particularly for narrow body aircraft. At a substantially reduced risk proprietary aluminum alloys and new aluminum-lithium alloys offer improvements in weight savings and enhanced strength at a lower cost.”

Goodman discussed the evolution of the market for aerospace aluminum and highlighted:

• Bombardier’s selection of aluminum-lithium for the CSeries fuselage;
• Mitsubishi’s recent decision to switch the MRJ-21 from a composite to an aluminum wing;
• Comac’s consideration of advanced aluminum products for the wing and fuselage; and
• Lockheed Martin’s choice of aluminum-lithium on the primary structures of the Orion spacecraft.

In his role as director of marketing, Goodman coordinates the company-wide efforts across all Alcoa businesses that serve the global aerospace industry. He has worked within the aerospace and defense community for nearly 30 years, covering the functional spectrum from corporate strategy to tactical, shop floor operations and information technology solution development. In addition to working for the consultancies Arthur D. Little, AT Kearney and the Canaan Group, Goodman also has held strategy and planning positions at Continental Data Graphics (now a Boeing subsidiary), and TRW (now Northrop Grumman) where he served as vice president, corporate strategy. Dan holds a masters degree in National Security Policy from George Washington University.

For a copy of his presentation, go to http://www.alcoa.com/aluminumoutlookaerospace.