THE COMPOSITES AFFORDABILITY INITIATIVE - PHASE 3 REVIEW

摘要

The Composites Affordability Initiative (CAI) was a joint DoD/Industry program aimed at reducing the cost of composite aircraft structure. The program started in 1995 and was completed in 2006. The CAI team included Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and Bell Helicopter Textron as well as the Air Force and Navy. Early phases of the program identified an increased use of integrated and bonded structure concepts as the best way to achieve significant cost savings. CAI Phase 2 cost studies and demonstrations have shown that cost savings of up to 50% over conventional state-of-the-art airframe construction are achievable. CAI has made great strides in the development of technologies to enable the implementation of integrated and bonded composite primary structures. Manufacturing processes for large integrated structures were developed and demonstrated. A new generation of analysis tools was developed and validated to enable the design of complex cocured, co-bonded and secondarily-bonded joints. A significant amount of research was conducted to understand adhesive bonding processes and develop new methods to assure the quality and robustness of the bonds, including a groundbreaking new method to locally proof-test a bonded joint. A significant impediment to fielding bonded primary structure has been the difficulty in demonstrating compliance with structural certification requirements. The CAI program developed detailed plans for using CAI-developed technologies to meet the current requirements and worked with certifying authorities to ensure these approaches were viable and complete. This paper will present an overview of the significant accomplishments of the CAI team during Phase 3 of the program.