Manufacturing Methods and Technology Project for Production of Low Cost Missile Vanes

摘要

Martin Marietta's experience with ablative air vanes dates to the 1950s with the development of the Pershing I missile. In 1969, Martin Marietta Orlando Aerospace demonstrated net molding and primary bonding on the Sprint air vanes, and also the potential cost savings during manufacturing. However, the high pressures required for molding caused excessive deflections of the metallic substructure. Pershing II (PII), started in the 1970s, used proven air vane technologies developed for Sprint. The Pershing vanes consisted of metallic substructures, designed to accept the air loads, and heat shields, designed to protect the substructures from severe aerodynamic heating and rain erosion. The main cost driver for air vane fabrication, such as for Pershing II and Patriot, was the need to separately fabricate and apply heat shield panels to the basic metallic structure, which is a costly operation. To avoid this cost, Martin Marietta fabricated the heat shield and structural composite in a single cocured net molded operation. The objective of this program was to combine these subtechnologies into a complete advanced air vane manufacturing technology capable of reducing the cost and increasing the performance of parts currently made from metallics by using fiber-reinforced composites.