UPDATE 1-Hexcel Q2 results beat Wall Street view

* Q2 EPS $0.23 vs est $0.17

* Sales up 10 pct

July 26 (Reuters) - Hexcel Corp (HXL.N), a maker of structural materials for the aerospace industry, posted better-than-expected quarterly results helped by higher commercial aerospace sales.

For the second quarter, net income was $23.1 million, or 23 cents a share, compared with $16.8 million, or 17 cents a share, a year ago.

Sales rose 10 percent to $305.1 million, while commercial aerospace sales rose about 17 percent to $161 million.

Analysts on average were expecting earnings of 17 cents a share, before special items, on revenue of $280.7 million, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Shares of the company closed at $18.74 Monday on the New York Stock Exchange. (Reporting by Divya Sharma in Bangalore; Editing by Roshni Menon)