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Air Force tests plane built with composite materials

An 87-minute flight is the result of a program to build simpler, cheaper aircraft.

The Advanced Composite Cargo Aircraft is rolled out in May, 2009 at Lockheed Martin's Skunk Works, U.S. Air Force Plant 42 in Palmdale, Calif. The ACCA is a modified Dornier 328J aircraft.

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Photos: Air Force tests new cargo plane

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By , Staff Report Updated 2:45 PM Friday, June 5, 2009

WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE — The Air Force is testing a military cargo plane, built in part with composite materials, to demonstrate ways of making aircraft manufacturing simpler, cheaper and less time-consuming.

The Air Force Research Laboratory and contractor Lockheed Martin Corp. said they completed an initial demonstration flight of the plane Tuesday, at Palmdale, Calif.

The 87-minute test flight went well and more are planned, the Air Force said Wednesday, June 3.

The plane, a modified Dornier 328J, is known as the advanced composite cargo aircraft.

The fuselage, behind the crew station, and the vertical tail were replaced with new versions built of composite materials for the testing.

More than 600 sensors and other devices are attached to the test plane to measure stresses on its structure.

The materials and processes used for the fuselage reduced the number of parts to 300, from the 3,000 for the original metal design, and slashed the number of mechanical fasteners to about 4,000 from the original 30,000, the Air Force said.

The composite structure is manufactured without complex tooling, and the bonding process greatly reduces the structural components and fasteners, Lockheed Martin said.

The goal is to reduce the cost and time of airframe design and manufacturing, said Barth Shenk, the program manager from AFRL’s air vehicles directorate at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.

“This has the potential to change aircraft manufacturing, as we presently know it, for the better,” Shenk said.

Composite materials are lighter than metal equivalents.

Using composites could eliminate or greatly reduce corrosion problems, in turn reducing aircraft maintenance requirements.

The test plane’s first flight resulted from a 10-year AFRL research and development program called the Composite Affordability Initiative, the Air Force said.

Government researchers worked with industry to develop advanced materials and manufacturing technologies, Shenk said.

The plane isn’t designed to be a prototype, he said.

Rather, it is intended to demonstrate that composite manufacturing processes have practical value in a full-scale aircraft, Shenk said.

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