Affordable Thermoplastic Structures

The role of helicopters on the battlefield depends on their capability to survive against a variety of hostile and lethal threats. These threats include the use of ever increasing conventional and unconventional weapons. In developing features for survivability enhancement against these threats for rotorcraft designs, the designer is faced with the increasing challenge of making rotorcraft more affordable, in terms of cost and weight, while simultaneously accommodating a shrinking defense budget. The previous "brute force" approach to protect the rotorcraft individually against each threat will be ineffective in achieving the affordable rotorcraft designs. This paper will address the synergistic design approach used to design a thermoplastic composite helicopter tailboom against a variety of High Explosive Incendiary (HEI) and Directed Energy Weapons (DEW) threats.