High-Performance Composites

JUL 2014

High-Performance Composites is read by qualified composites industry professionals in the fields of continuous carbon fiber and other high-performance composites as well as the associated end-markets of aerospace, military, and automotive.

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J U L Y 2 0 1 4 | 2 7 North Coast Composites delivers the complete parts solution. For 35 years North Coast Tool & Mold has been an industry leader in the manufacture of molds for high performance composites. Y ISO9001-2000 AS9100B C o m p o s i t e s The Companies of North Coast North Coast Tool & Mold Corp. North Coast Composites, Inc. www.northcoastcomposites.com 216.398.8550 extron AirLand LLC (Wichita, Kan.) reports that it is continuing its de- velopment of a composite-airframed tactical fghter jet, the Scorpion. Begun in secrecy at a Cessna Aircraft facility (Cess- na is a Textron company) in east Wichita in 2012 and revealed last September, the plane is the work of a joint venture be- tween Textron Inc. (Providence, R.I.) and AirLand Enterprises LLC. The latter, a group of aerospace and defense execu- tives, envisioned what the company calls a "clean-sheet" design for an affordable yet effective light jet for multiple mar- kets that would complement current U.S. combat aircraft. Although orders for the jet have yet to be announced, several proposals have reportedly been pitched to potential military customers. The multimission, tandem-seat twin jet, self-funded by Textron, went from design to fight in an unheard-of two- New Scorpion twin-jet to debut at Farnborough Air Show T year time frame, thanks in part to tooling partner Leading Edge Aerospace (LEA, Wichita, Kan.). Vacuum-infused airframe tools for the demonstrator craft were cre- ated on lightweight foam masters, using dry carbon fabric and epoxy from Airtech International (Huntington Beach, Calif.), for lower cost compared to prepreg, yet are autoclave-capable with fairly tight tolerances, says LEA's composites man- ager Rod Brown. Further, many of the systems on the test aircraft came from existing programs — one reason devel- opment time and cost were abbreviated. After more than 40 fights, test pilots report that the Scorpion is nimble, with plenty of power and good low-speed characteristics, including stability in landing confguration. According to Textron AirLand, the Scor- pion will fy from Wichita to the U.K., ap- pearing at the Royal Air Tattoo air show, July 11-13, and the Farnborough Interna- tional Air Show, July 14-20. The shows will afford Textron AirLand offcials op- portunities to meet potential customers. The round-trip distance (nearly 10,000 nautical miles) will be logged as part of Scorpion's 2014 testing program, expected to accrue as many as 400 test hours dur- ing about 150 fights. Low-volume pro- duction is expected to begin in 2015. BIZ BRIEFS Nondestructive testing (NDT) sys- tem supplier Tecnatom (Madrid, Spain) reports that it signed a con- tract with Premium Aerotec (Augs- burg, Germany) during the ILA Berlin Air Show (May 20-25, Berlin ExpoCenter Airport, Germany). The latter, a manufacturer of carbon f- ber composite, aluminum and ti- tanium structures, has acquired a robot-based Tecnatom inspection system mounted on a linear track. Capable of pulse-echo ultrasonic testing, it uses a variety of local immersion probes. The contract is Tecnatom's frst with Premium Aerotec, an important Tier 1 sup- plier for aircraft builders Airbus (Toulouse, France), The Boeing Co. (Chicago, Ill.) and Dassault Avia- tion (Paris, France), and also marks Tecnatom's entry into the German market, which has been dominated by domestic NDT manufacturers (see related story on p. 32). Source: Textron AirLand LLC 0714HPC New&Briefs-OK.indd; 27 6/17/2014 10:30:32 AM

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