Advanced Lightweight Aviation Components and Materials

The A/MH-6M Mission-Enhanced Little Bird (MELB) serves the roles of light attack (AH-6M) and light assault/transport/reconnaissance (MH-6M) helicopters.As such, critical characteristics include overall nimbleness, payload capacity, range, time on station, transit time, and component life/safety margin.Keeping pace with operators desire for improvement of these characteristics is critical for the platform moving forward.Each of the aforementioned critical characteristics would be positively influenced by the reduction of parasitic weight in the form of structural mass and/or the size of an individual component.This can be accomplished by the application of advanced structural optimization design tools, implementation of novel design approaches including consideration for alternative manufacturing processes, implementation of advanced materials, or a combination of these approaches.The overall objective of this Phase II program is to reduce the weight and/or size of A/MH-6M components by utilizing advanced materials and manufacturing techniques.The advanced lightweight components and materials developed under this SBIR effort are expected to provide weight reduction while balancing the trade-offs between performance, logistics, maintenance, reliability, cost, and return on investment.