Advanced Transport Damage Tolerant GLARE Hybrid Bonded Wing Structure

The Air Force Next Generation Transport will apply advanced hybrid material forms to meet stringent weight and cost requirements and will consist of unitized structural concepts as a result. Glass-Reinforced Aluminum Laminate (GLARE) is a new class of fiber metal laminates for advanced aerospace structural applications. GLARE laminates offer a unique combination of properties including outstanding fatigue resistance, high specific static properties, excellent impact resistance, and ease of manufacture and repair.  GLARE laminates can be tailored to suit a wide variety of applications by varying the fiber/resin system, the alloy type and thickness, stacking sequence, fiber orientation, surface pretreatment technique, etc.  The Air Force, Navy and major military aircraft contractors have invested significant resources developing advanced out-of-autoclave bonded joint technologies that offer military platforms 15 to 30 percent weight and cost savings compared to conventional metallic structures. Three-dimensional woven pi-preform joints are also very tolerant to manufacturing flaws and damage after impact. Under this STTR program, Aurora will develop unitized bonded structure that applies the impact and damage tolerant GLARE materials to skins, spars, ribs, and skin stiffeners, while also attaching the members together in a co-bond assembly that joins the structural members with glass 3-D woven pi-preforms in an out-of-autoclave co-bond cure process. BENEFIT: The need for out-of-autoclave bonding processes, hybrid GLARE structures, and advanced joining methods for aircraft structures is driven by stringent requirements on the next generation Air Force transport aircraft, as well as lightweight structures for both commercial transportation and the space industry. As a leader in the development and manufacturing of composite and metallic structures for defense systems, Aurora is ideally positioned to develop and productize hybrid aircraft structures fabricated using out-of-autoclave processes and advanced joining techniques.  The technology developed as a result of this program would find applications in both aircraft and spacecraft programs.  Aurora will work to develop this technology and transition any processes or techniques developed during the course of this program to the military and commercial sectors. Application of this technology to US Government programs will help to allow advanced integrated aerospace structures design and increase performance through advanced materials while simultaneously decreasing manufacturing costs.  Aurora will market the processes and tooling techniques developed during this program as a tool in the acquisition and development of new aircraft programs in both the military and commercial sectors.)