Development of Advanced Rotorcraft Skin Concepts

The objective of the program described here is to examine new composite airframe structural concepts suitable for transport rotorcraft. The focus is on concepts that could achieve a significant cost and weight reduction over current state-of-the-art airframes by integrating the frame substructure and the skin assembly into a single unitized assembly. Some of the design, analysis and manufacturing process developments that were conducted to achieve these objectives, such as parametric design tools, structural optimization and nonlinear analysis, and co-curing of complex unitized structural assemblies are described here.