CERAMIC MATRIX COMPOSITE EXTERNAL CHALLENGE

MBDA recently held a Ceramic Matrix Composite (CMC) External Challenge. We asked the innovation community what materials and associated manufacturing processes they would use to develop a temperature resilient airframe forebody out of CMC's.

The challenge was communicated through both MBDA's communications channels and through the National Composites Centre (NCC), part of the UK's High Value Manufacturing Catapult Centre Network. Communicating the challenge through the NCC enabled us to reach their membership and wider community who are already active in this sector.

The challenge received a very high level of interest. In total over 900 people/companies accessed the challenge from around the world. We had a broad interest from our key innovation collaboration areas: academia, Start-ups, SME's, Research Centres, Large Multinationals and Government research departments.

We will continue to hold external challenges supporting the external community through Open Innovation.