Aircraft industry inspires Jaguar Land Rover

Jaguar Land Rover are looking outside of the motor industry to seek out new lightweight materials for future models. Part of a twoyear project, the company will use technology that has been developed for the aerospace industry, exploring how differing materials behave in punishing terrain and highly corrosive atmospheres around the world.

New metals and composites planned for use in future Jaguar and Land Rover products will be built into aerospace-grade sensors and put through extreme pressure testing over 250,000 miles in North America. Feedback via the sensors will be transmitted to the product development team in the UK, so that engineers can accurately forecast how the next-generation lightweight material will behave over the life of a vehicle, ensuring it meets stringent standards and a high quality finish.

The research is part of Gesamtverband der Aluminium-industrie (GDA), made up of a consortium of aluminium manufacturers and vehicle makers researching how future materials can be made to be more durable, lighter and longer lasting. Jaguar Land Rover sees this as a key ingredient of its work towards its Destination Zero vision, a future world with zero emissions, zero accidents and zero congestion.