Novel Aerogel Enhanced Structures for Future Aerospace Vehicles

Future generation aircraft demand advancements in performance and multifunctionality in the structures. Areas such as weapons bays, landing gear bays, avionics, etc., require active cooling in order to protect the components from overheating duringoperation. Aspen Aerogels proposes to team with Northrop Grumman corporation to develop aerogel insulation solutions for these aircraft structure applications. Aerogels currently are the most effective thermal insulation known, short of hard vacuum.Proposed aerogel blankets or aerogel augmented honeycomb will provide increased thermal insulation for reduced active cooling, weight, and cost in aircraft structure. Additionally, the aerogel material provides IR suppression, blast mitigation, noisesuppression, and fire resistance for further enhanced multifunctionality. The material developed can easily be implemented into the structure of future aircraft such as the Long Range Strike Aircraft or B-2. Aspen's current commercialization of theaerogel blanket insulation will serve as the basis for transition of the proposed technology to the commercial market. The aerogel insulation will provide incredible thermal insulation, as well as IR suppression, blast mitigation, noise suppression, andfire resistance. Incorporating this material directly into the structure (ie, into a honeycomb core) will provide these benefits with little weight gain and within existing space constraints. These material solutions can be applied to future military, aswell as commercial aircraft structures.