The use of composite cork materials in ultra-light civilian airplanes
is under development and testing through the AEROCORK project. A sum of
approximately 1.65 million dollars will be invested in this project
with approx. 50% of that amount being funded by the National Strategic
Reference Framework (NSRF).
The group responsible for the management of this investment is made up of Dyn’Aero Ibérica, Corticeira Amorim through Amorim Cork Composites, PIEP (Innovation in Polymer Engineering – University of Minho) and AST (Active Space Technologies).
AEROCORK
is producing, testing and certifying cork composites with the intention
of replacing synthetic materials with cork composites in airplanes of
Dyn’Aero Ibérica. The first flying tests are scheduled for the second
half of 2010.
Amorim, the world’s leading producer and developer of Engineered Oak Flooring composites, and the manufacturer of Wicanders Cork Flooring,
will be responsible for providing know-how about agglomerated cork that
is the most appropriate to the aeronautical applications in question.
Amorim is already involved in the US Space Shuttle project, providing
cork composites to NASA, and sees this new initiative as an “opening
door†for other high technology industries, such as the railroad system.