Single-Process, Unitized, Composite Fuselage

NASA seeks tailored airframes and structures to reduce structural mass in support of the NASA Aeronautics Strategic Implementation Plan (2015), following the Roadmap for Ultra-Efficient Commercial Vehicles, Subsonic Transport. Tailored structures are comprised of the right materials, at the right place, in the right orientation, in the right amount. Whatever the material or structural configuration, excess weight is driven out through optimization, within the limitations of the manufacturing approach. NASA’s Advanced Composites Project is focused on the manufacturing approaches that enable more efficient composite structures. CRG has been laying the foundation for the design and production of tailored structures for more than a decade. CRG’s vision for tailored airframes and structures begins with unitization, enabled by Smart Tooling for affordable manufacturing of complex composites. CRG began work on Smart Tooling for fuselages in 2005, targeting fully-integrated, single-process skins, stringers, and frames. CRG subsidiary Spintech launched in 2010 to commercialize Smart Tooling into the aerospace industry. Today, CRG brings robust capabilities in composite structural optimization, expanding capabilities in aerospace composite fabrication, and Spintech’s Smart Tooling technology to provide NASA with unitized fuselage configurations with an unmatched combination of affordability and structural efficiency.