An aircraft is grounded. A critical component is obsolete. The original supplier no longer exists. In aerospace and defense, these scenarios are operational realities that program managers, MRO engineers, and supply chain leaders face with increasing frequency.
Additive manufacturing has long been positioned as the answer. The promise is compelling: produce parts on demand, closer to the point of need, reducing lead times and supply chain exposure. But between that promise and a certified, field-ready part lies a gap that the industry is still working to close.
What does it actually take to deploy AM as a credible response to AOG situations and obsolescence challenges? How do organizations like Airbus and GA-ASI build qualification frameworks that can scale across multiple platforms, business units, and operating environments? And when speed to field conflicts with certification depth, who wins, and who should?
The first episode of Additive Talks, Season 6 will tackle these questions head-on.
Entitled “Closer, faster, certified: Where does distributed AM stand in aerospace & defense today?”, and scheduled for Wednesday, April 22, from 15:30–16:30 CEST (09:30–10:30 EDT), this session will bring together two of the industry’s most experienced voices on additive manufacturing strategy and deployment:
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Hauke Schulz One from the civil and defense aviation world, Hauke Schulz, Additive Manufacturing Roadmap Leader, at Airbus.
Hauke Schulz leads the AM roadmap across the entire Airbus Group, overseeing research and development projects spanning Airbus Commercial, Helicopters, and Defense & Space. In this role, he builds the vision and strategy to maximize the value of AM across three distinct business units, while cultivating the internal and external networks needed to surface high-value partnership opportunities and industrial synergies.
- One from unmanned systems and advanced defense manufacturing, Steve Fournier, Technical Director, Additive Design & Manufacturing Center of Excellence, General Atomics Aeronautical Systems (GA-ASI).
As the leader of the Additive Design & Manufacturing Center of Excellence at GA-ASI, Steve Fournier is shaping the future of aerospace manufacturing. He is the strategic force behind GA-ASI’s Factory of the Future, where additive manufacturing, automation, and digital integration converge into a scalable ecosystem driving the next era of aerospace and defense production.
The conversation will follow a deliberate progression: from individual positioning and operational pressure points, through systemic challenges around certification, to the strategic horizon of distributed manufacturing and future outlook.
The insights shared aim to surface practical learnings relevant to aerospace and defense professionals navigating the adoption of additive manufacturing in complex industrial environments.
Does this look like a conversation you would like to join?
