Sep 16 2010
Aurora Flight Sciences announced today that it has designed, built, tested and delivered the composite wing for Boeing's Phantom Eye High Altitude Long Endurance (HALE) demonstrator.
"Aurora strives to provide a broad range of capabilities, high quality and value to our customers," said John Langford, CEO of Aurora Flight Sciences. "Our on time and on budget delivery of the wing is all the more impressive given that the wing was 12% under its weight allocation. This project continues our relationship with the Boeing Company." Previous contracts include high altitude airframe design studies, pressure relief valves used on the International Space Station and ultra-high altitude propulsion testing services.
The wing is a 150 foot long, multi piece design made almost entirely of out-of-autoclave composite material. The wing is a modified version of Aurora's Orion Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) wing. The Phantom Eye wing was designed by a team of engineers based in Aurora's Manassas, Virginia Product Development Center.
The wing was fabricated and tested at Aurora's Columbus, Mississippi plant, an 88,000 square foot advanced composite manufacturing facility. The 100% limit load test thoroughly validated the design and construction, applying over 13,000 lbs of force. Deflections and strain levels measured during the load test matched or bettered the predictions.
Source: http://www.aurora.aero/