Wichita State University’s National Institute for Aviation Research (NIAR) is one
of 14 recipients of $50 million from NASA to develop manufacturing processes and advanced
composite materials for aircraft structures.
The awards are from NASA’s Hi-Rate Composite Aircraft Manufacturing (HiCAM) project,
which seeks to reduce the cost and increase the production rate of composite structures
made in the U.S. These green technologies hold the potential to help reduce aviation
carbon emissions.
With more lightweight, composite airframes in service, airlines will save fuel and
reduce emissions, making commercial aviation more sustainable. Sustainability, cost,
and aircraft production rate drive U.S. competitiveness in the commercial aircraft
industry.
Waruna Seneviratne, director of NIAR’s Advanced Technologies Lab for Aerospace Systems,
will lead the effort for Wichita State.
“This outstanding program brings together government, industry and academia to increase
composite aircraft manufacturing rates, reduce costs and improve performance,” he
said. “It will accelerate the insertion of new advanced materials, processes and techniques
into the aviation, defense and advanced air mobility sectors.”
HiCAM works with a public-private partnership, the Advanced Composites Consortium
(ACC), which allows partners to take advantage of each other’s expertise and increase
the likelihood of the U.S. aviation industry adopting results. WSU-NIAR is a member
of the ACC.
“By working together as a team, rather than as competitors, NASA and our partners
will accelerate the development of technologies and the transition of those technologies
onto the next generation of transport aircraft,” said Dr. Richard Young, HiCAM project
manager at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia.
HiCAM focues on three manufacturing concepts: next-generation thermosets, resin-infused
composites, and thermoplastic composites. The new awards will support the evaluation
and development of these concepts at small scales, including experiments in material
processing, assembly techniques, inspection, and structural performance.
The ACC member organizations that received NASA funding through these latest awards
are:
Advanced Thermoplastic Composites of Post Falls, Idaho
Boeing of St. Louis
CGTech of Irvine, California
Collier Aerospace of Newport News, Virginia
Collins Aerospace of Chula Vista, California
Electroimpact of Mukilteo, Washington
Hexcel, of Stamford, Connecticut
Lockheed Martin of Palmdale, California
Northrop Grumman of Clearfield, Utah
Solvay of Alpharetta, Georgia
Spirit AeroSystems of Wichita, Kansas
Toray Advanced Composites of Morgan Hill, California
University of South Carolina of Columbia, South Carolina
Wichita State University National Institute for Aviation Research
At the conclusion of this phase of the project, HiCAM will select the most promising
concepts for further development, after which will follow a full-scale demonstration
of fuselage or wing components by 2028.
