Introduction: Airbus is already thinking beyond the A320
The A320 is the best-selling commercial aircraft in history. And yet, Airbus is already working on its successor.
In an interview with Aviation Week in June 2026, Airbus CEO Guillaume Faury confirmed that the company is aiming for a program launch of a new narrow-body aircraft by 2030 — internally called eAction — with a service entry in the second half of the 2030s. The goal is clear: a fundamental leap in efficiency, sustainability, and manufacturing economics that the engine upgrade of the A320neo alone cannot achieve. For this, Airbus needs not only a new aircraft but a fundamentally new way to build it.
This is where the Multifunctional Fuselage Demonstrator (MFFD) becomes relevant. Designed in 2014 and funded under the European Clean Sky 2 program, the MFFD was never just a research exercise. It was a scale model feasibility demonstration for the manufacturing technologies that could shape the next generation of commercial aircraft fuselages — and thermoplastic composite materials are at the center of this vision.
What the MFFD is — and why it matters
The MFFD is an 8-meter long, 4-meter diameter fuselage section at a 1:1 scale, made entirely of carbon fiber reinforced thermoplastic (CFRTP). It is the largest known aerospace structure ever made from thermoplastic composites. The project aims for a 10% weight reduction of the fuselage and a 20% reduction in operating costs — figures that do not represent a marginal improvement at the production rates of 60 to 100 aircraft per month targeted by Airbus, but rather signify a structural change in manufacturing economics.
The demonstrator was divided into two half-shells, produced by different consortia with different manufacturing philosophies — a deliberate decision that allowed for a direct technology comparison at full scale.
The lower shell was produced by a Dutch-led consortium (GKN Fokker, NLR, Diehl Aviation, TU Delft) as part of the STUNNING project. It utilized Automated Tape Laying (ATL) and AFP with subsequent autoclave consolidation — the established aerospace method with well-understood quality levels, but significant infrastructure costs and long cycle times.
The upper shell took a different approach. Led by the DLR Center for Lightweight Production Technology (ZLP) in Augsburg — in consortium with Airbus, Premium AEROTEC, and Aernnova — it was produced using laser-assisted AFP with in-situ consolidation: no autoclave, no vacuum bag, no downstream consolidation step. Fiber placement and consolidation occur simultaneously in a single automated pass.
This distinction is not only technical in nature. It is a commitment to how the series production of thermoplastic aerospace structures could look in the future.
The upper DLR shell: AFPT technology at the center of the process
For the outer skin of the upper shell, the DLR used a Multi-Tow-AFP laying head from AFPT GmbH (Dörth), combined with a Laserline-LDM diode laser for local heating, mounted on a robotic system at ZLP Augsburg. The starting material was Toray Cetex® TC1225 — a carbon fiber reinforced low-melt PAEK tape (LM-PAEK) — laid on a TC1225-LSP film on a tool from Grunewald GmbH & Co. KG.
The DLR completed the skin assembly in January 2023 and delivered the complete upper shell assembly — including ultrasonic welded stringers from Aernnova and resistance welded frames from Premium AEROTEC — in July 2023. The Fraunhofer IFAM then welded the upper and lower shells along two longitudinal seam connections, thus completing the world's largest thermoplastic composite structure for aerospace.
The process data speaks a clear language: In-situ consolidation without autoclave or vacuum bag reduces the panel manufacturing time by up to 40 % compared to the conventional thermoset route. With the production rates that Airbus aims for the next aircraft, this is not an incremental improvement — it is a structural change in manufacturing economics.
What DLR has learned from this
The upper MFFD shell was not produced without challenges, and the DLR openly communicates the quality gaps that occurred. A paper presented at ITHEC 2024 — „Closing the Quality Gap of Thermoplastic AFP: Insights from the Production of the MFFD Upper Shell" — documents the manufacturing problems observed during the skin placement and the solutions implemented.
Key technical insights:
Control of crystallinity is crucial. LM-PAEK consolidates at lower temperatures than PEEK (about 40 °C lower melting point), but the rapid thermal cycles during in-situ AFP lead to lower crystallinity than autoclave-processed laminates. This affects matrix-dominated mechanical properties. DLR investigated post-curing steps and heated tools as countermeasures — both proved effective in inducing secondary crystallization.
Narrow process windows. Laser power, tape laying speed, compaction force, and nip point temperature must be precisely controlled and tailored to the respective geometry. DLR developed material models for real-time simulation of the crystallization state to optimize process parameters before full-scale production.
Multi-tow placement increases complexity. The AFPT multi-tow head significantly increases the layup rate, but offset geometries between adjacent tows can create local bonding inconsistencies. DLR's work identified the relationship between offset geometry and interlaminar shear strength — insights that will directly influence the selection of process parameters for future components.
Only a test shell system. Before the actual demonstrator, DLR produced a full-scale test shell to validate all manufacturing technologies. This iterative approach — prototype, validation, then production — is a model for how thermoplastic AFP should be industrialized.
The overarching conclusion from the DLR work is not that in-situ consolidation is immature — but that the remaining quality gaps are understood, addressable, and actively closed. This is a fundamentally different position than it was a decade ago.
AFP Placement vs. Winding: Two paths, different geometries
The upper MFFD shell was produced using AFP — a process in which narrow prepreg tapes are laid down in precise orientations on an open mold surface. AFP is well-suited for large, complex, open geometries like fuselage panels, where fiber angle variation across the surface is required and access to the layup surface is unrestricted.
Fiber Winding — and its thermoplastic advancement, Laser-Assisted Thermoplastic Winding (LATW) — operates on a fundamentally different principle: Continuous rovings or tapes are wound under tension around a rotating core, thus creating closed cross-sectional geometries like pipes, cylinders, and pressure vessels. The process is inherently fast, material-efficient, and well-suited for axially symmetric or nearly axially symmetric structures.
For a fuselage outer skin, AFP is the right tool. For a pressure bulkhead cover, a drive shaft, a stator cage, or a structural tube — it is the wrapping. Both processes are complementary, not competing, and a mature thermoplastic aircraft program is expected to require both. An in-depth comparison of the process mechanics, trade-offs, and application limits will follow in a separate article.
The potential of wrapped thermoplastic components in aircraft construction
The MFFD has proven that thermoplastic composites can replace aluminum in primary fuselage structures. However, the fuselage outer skin is just one part of an aircraft's structural architecture — and in many other places, wrapped components are not only feasible but the preferred solution.
Consider the structural and functional requirements of a modern narrow-body aircraft:
Pressure vessels and overwraps for hydrogen storage, fire suppression systems, and onboard oxygen supply
Rotor casings and stator cages in electric motor architectures, which are becoming increasingly relevant for hybrid drive concepts
Structural tubes and profiles for seat tracks, floor beams, and cabin installations
Drive shafts for actuation systems and power transmission
All of these are geometries where continuous fiber winding — especially LATW — showcases its core advantages: high fiber volume contents, excellent circumferential and axial strength, no autoclave, and a process that is inherently designed for automation and series production. With a thermoplastic matrix, these components are also weldable, recyclable, and compatible with the joining technologies demonstrated in the MFFD.
The MFFD has shown that the aerospace industry takes thermoplastic composite materials seriously at the level of primary structures. With the upcoming launch of the next Airbus narrowbody program, the demand for qualified thermoplastic composite components — including wound pipes and structural profiles — will grow significantly. The technology is ready. The manufacturing partners who can deliver it in series with the necessary process know-how will help determine what the next aircraft will be made of.
Alformet GmbH continuously manufactures fiber-reinforced thermoplastic composite pipes and structural profiles using Laser-Assisted Thermoplastic Winding — the same AFPT process technology used in the MFFD upper shell construction. If you are evaluating thermoplastic composite components for your next program, get in touch.
📚 SOURCES USED:
Aviation Week & Space Technology — "Interview: Why Airbus CEO Is Bullish On Launching A320 Replacement In 2030", Jens Flottau & Robert Wall, June 25, 2026. https://aviationweek.com/air-transport/aircraft-propulsion/interview-why-airbus-ceo-bullish-launching-a320-replacement-2030
CompositesWorld — "Manufacturing the MFFD thermoplastic composite fuselage". https://www.compositesworld.com/articles/manufacturing-the-mffd-thermoplastic-composite-fuselage
CompositesWorld — "DLR completes MFFD upper shell skin layup". https://www.compositesworld.com/news/dlr-completes-mffd-upper-shell-skin-layup
CompositesWorld — „MFFD longitudinal seams welded, world's largest CFRTP fuselage successfully completed". https://www.compositesworld.com/news/mffd-longitudinal-seams-welded-worlds-largest-cfrtp-fuselage-successfully-completed
DLR — „MFFD – Thermoplaste statt Aluminium im Flugzeugbau". https://www.dlr.de/en/latest/news/2023/03/mffd-thermoplastics-instead-of-aluminium-in-aircraft-construction
DLR — „MFFD – Produktionstechnologie für den thermoplastischen Rumpf von morgen". https://www.dlr.de/en/bt/research-transfer/projects/project-archive/mffd
DLR / ITHEC 2024 — „Closing the Quality Gap of thermoplastic AFP: Insights from the Production of the MFFD Upper Shell" (Deden et al.). https://elib.dlr.de/211330/1/20240801_ITHEC_Deden.pdf
DLR JEC 2025 One-Pager — „Multifunctional Fuselage Demonstrator (MFFD)". https://www.dlr.de/en/bt/multimedia/publications/jec-2025/multifunctional-fuselage-demonstrator-mffd/