Gulfstream Aerospace and Fives Machining Systems are the newest members of the Advanced Composites Consortium, which supports NASA’s Hi-Rate Composite Aircraft Manufacturing, or HiCAM, project.
HiCAM partners with the private sector, academia and regulators to address an aviation industry need for more rapid production of composite aircraft that delivers improved performance to meet increasing global demand for lightweight air transport vehicles and secure U.S. competitiveness in the commercial aircraft industry, NASA said Thursday.
Lightweight composite airframes are also expected to contribute to NASA’s Sustainable Flight National Partnership by reducing fuel consumption and carbon emissions to improve air quality.
With the addition of Gulfstream and Fives, the consortium now has over 20 members with significant and unique expertise in aircraft design, manufacturing, certification, testing and tool development.
Competition among the organizations is ongoing to determine what composite aircraft concepts have the greatest impact on manufacturing rates.
Selected proposals will be demonstrated at full scale.
