The Boeing Company

Bryan Clark Brewer

Patrick Jacob Mobers

Kelly Jonathan Courter

Andrea O Barney

Claire E Anton

John Stanley Jones

John Crumpler

A lightweight ablator formulation has been developed which offers superior thermal performance compared to current state of the art ablator formulations. The lightweight ablator formulations described herein typically include at least one endothermically decomposing (energy absorbing) material with a fluxing agent resulting in significantly reduced backface temperature response and a more stable surface. According to one implementation the ablator composition comprises about 30 to about 70 percent by weight of a base silicone resin, about 25 to about 67 percent by weight of a low-density filler, about 3 to about 7 percent by weight of a curing agent and greater than 0 and up to about 10 percent by weight of a boron-containing compound.

High efficiency erosion resistant silicone ablator composition

A method of forming a thermal protection system for high speed aircraft is described. The method includes mechanically working an uncured ablator material into a first surface of a felt layer such that the ablator material penetrates a distance into a thickness of the felt layer thereby forming an region that has a mixture of felt and ablator material, adding additional uncured ablator material to the worked ablator material, and curing the combined ablator material.

Hybrid ablative thermal protection systems and associated methods

A highly abrasion resistant and durable, low density ablator composition is provided that comprises a base silicone resin, silica microballoons as a filler, a catalyst, and a thinning fluid to control the viscosity of the base silicone resin. The density of the resulting composition is approximately 0.32 g/cc yet the composition has excellent abrasion resistance. Furthermore, the ratio of filler to base silicone resin, by weight, is approximately 0.91. The ablator composition is also RF (radio frequency) transparent, moisture resistant, and low cost. Methods of mixing the ablator composition and forming ablative structures are also provided.

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Garden Grove, CA, United States of America

Bryan Clark Brewer