Single-Process, Unitized, Composite Fuselage

NASA seeks tailored airframes and structures to reduce structural mass in support of the NASA Aeronautics Strategic Implementation Plan (2015), following the Roadmap for Ultra-Efficient Commercial Vehicles, Subsonic Transport. Tailored structures are comprised of the right materials, at the right place, in the right orientation, in the right amount. Whatever the material or structural configuration, excess weight is driven out through optimization, within the limitations of the manufacturing approach. NASA’s Advanced Composites Project is focused on the manufacturing approaches that enable more efficient composite structures. CRG has been laying the foundation for the design and production of tailored structures for more than a decade. CRG’s vision for tailored airframes and structures begins with unitization, enabled by Smart Tooling for affordable manufacturing of complex composites. CRG began work on Smart Tooling for fuselages in 2005, targeting fully-integrated, single-process skins, stringers, and frames. CRG subsidiary Spintech launched in 2010 to commercialize Smart Tooling into the aerospace industry. Today, CRG brings robust capabilities in composite structural optimization, expanding capabilities in aerospace composite fabrication, and Spintech’s Smart Tooling technology to provide NASA with unitized fuselage configurations with an unmatched combination of affordability and structural efficiency.

Supporting NASA's Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate, this project's technologies directly address requirements for tailored airframes and structures resulting in mass reduction for improved fuselage structural efficiency. The goals support NASA's roadmap for Ultra-Efficient Commercial Vehicles - Subsonic Transport, and the Advanced Composites Project. This project's technologies enabling structural unitization lead to reduced manufacturing cost, reduced operating costs resulting from reduced fuel burn, and reduced emissions, leading to cleaner and more affordable flight in the future.

This project's technologies, developed for NASA systems, would directly apply to systems operated by other government and commercial enterprises. Government systems that would derive the same benefits would include future DoD aircraft, both manned and UAS. This technology's attributes for reduced manufacturing costs and reduced operating costs should yield a high potential for private sector commercialization for aircraft production by the major OEMs, prime contractors, and Tier 1 suppliers in both the commercial aircraft and defense industries.

This is early/mid-stage (TRL 6) — the most realistic path in is NASA SBIR/STTR, which funds small businesses and research institutions to develop technology aligned with NASA's needs (equity-free, phased funding). Check whether a current SBIR/STTR solicitation topic overlaps with this project's technology area, or contact the project directly (above) to ask.

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