Manufacturing Aircraft with Better Ingredients, March 9

Over the past decades, advanced materials have been used to improve airplanes, satellites, unmanned aerial vehicles, and more. The recent applications of composites in commercial aviation and the challenges and opportunities related to the manufacturing of composite aircraft structures is the topic of a special lecture at 4 p.m. on Monday, March 9. It will be held in the auditorium on the first floor of the National Center for Supercomputing Applications at 1205 W. Clark Street, in Urbana.

The speaker, Tia Benson Tolle, is the Director of Materials and Fabrication for Boeing Commercial Airplanes in the Product Strategy and Future Airplane Development group. Serving in this position since 2012, she is responsible for developing and executing the Integrated Materials portfolio for Boeing’s Commercial Airplane products.

Her talk is entitled, “Manufacturing Aircraft with Better Ingredients.”

“Composite materials have become an engineering material of choice in aerospace because their high strength-to-weight and stiffness-to-weight ratios offer performance benefits,” Benson Tolle said. “Their tailorability also lends itself to innovative designs.  As these materials become increasingly in demand for high-volume applications, the manufacturing processes become increasingly important.”

The lecture is hosted by Department of Aerospace Engineering in The Grainger College of Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

As part of the Department of Aerospace Engineering's 75th anniversary year celebration, rather than a single lecture, it is offering four Stillwell Lectures, each in a different discipline within the department. This is the final of four lectures.

Benson Tolle leads a team of interdisciplinary project engineers. The team is charged to innovate and improve upon materials and production system technologies for current and future airplane programs. One project Benson Tolle and her team have been involved with is the first FAA-certified structural titanium additive manufactured part in BCA production for the 787 airplane. 

Prior to joining Boeing, Benson Tolle held several technical leadership positions in the Air Force Research Laboratory, including Technology Director of the Nonmetallic Materials Division, Structural Materials Branch Chief, and Composites Section Chief. 

Benson Tolle is a Fellow of the Society for the Advancement of Material and Process Engineering, an International Past President of SAMPE, and Past President of the Materials Research Society.  She serves on the industry advisory councils for Iowa State University’s Aerospace Engineering Department and University of Washington’s Materials Science and Engineering Department, and is a Trustee of Edmonds Community College.

Her education includes a B.S. in mechanical engineering from the University of Washington, an M.S. and a Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering from the University of Dayton, and a Masters Certificate in Leadership and Executive Development from the University of Dayton.

The H.S. Stillwell Memorial Lecture was established in honor of Professor H.S. “Shel” Stillwell. In 1944, when he was 27 years old, he founded the Department of Aeronautical Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and was the department head for 32 years. Stillwell was influential in the design of the first ramjet-powered missile and highly respected for his contributions to aerospace engineering education.