Spirit Aerosystems, Inc.

Sprint Aerosystems, Inc.

Darrell A Wade

Rahbar Nasserrafi

Thanh A Le

Mark Anthony Wadsworth

Gerald E Hicks

Amitabh Vyas

Roger Edmund Kornfeld

Aaron Rae Heitmann

David E Jakstis

Dennis Lebeda

Derek D Donaldson

Scott E Graves

Gary W Sundquist

An aircraft nacelle and method of fabricating a monolithic lipskin of the nacelle. The nacelle may include a fan cowl, a bulkhead, and the monolithic lipskin. The lipskin may be formed by spin-forming or explosive forming an annularly-shaped plate onto a mandrel, and machining or chemically-milling integrated stiffeners or other protrusions and attachment tabs into an inner mold line (IML) of the lipskin. The machining or chemical milling may occur before or after the spin-forming or explosive forming. The stiffeners may have a spiral or circumferential configuration. An attachment tab extending from the IML may attach to the bulkhead, such that an outer mold like (OML) of the lip-skin is not disrupted by mechanical fasteners attaching the lipskin to the bulkhead.

Monolithic lipskin and method of fabrication

Aluminum alloys are provided that can comprise boron and vanadium and high amounts of titanium and zirconium. The aluminum alloys described herein can exhibit superior tensile properties at both room temperature and elevated temperatures and still maintain desirable ductility. The aluminum alloys can be used in applications where resistance to fatigue and breakdown at elevated temperatures is desirable, which includes applications in the aerospace and aeronautical fields.

Aluminum-copper alloys with improved strength

A method of shaping a metallic honeycomb panel using a continuous drive sheet. The metallic honeycomb panel may have a perforated upper sheet, a non-perforated lower sheet, and a metal honeycomb core fixed between the upper and lower sheets. The method may include the steps of designing and manufacturing the drive sheet using finite element analysis (FEA) and criteria regarding shaping of the metallic honeycomb panel, then welding the drive sheet to the lower face of the lower sheet. The drive sheet may cover all of the lower face of the lower sheet and may have varying thicknesses determined based on the criteria and the FEA. The method may also include the steps of heating the drive sheet and metallic honeycomb panel to a creep forming or hot-stretch forming temperature and urging the metallic honeycomb panel and drive sheet into a male or female die mold to be shaped.

Bifurcation honeycomb sandwich structure with optimized doubler

A system and method for shaping a net or near-net titanium part, the method comprising machining a piece of titanium into a titanium part having non-uniform thickness, heating the titanium part to a target temperature within a target temperature range between an auto-relief temperature of the titanium part and a minimum temperature required for super plastic forming of the titanium part, and lowering a die into the titanium part with sufficient force to shape the titanium part. The system for shaping the titanium part may comprise a multiple-axis machine, a die, electrical clamps, sensors, and a control system for adjusting heating temperatures based on information received from the sensors regarding the titanium part.

System and method for forming contoured new and near-net shape titanium parts

An apparatus and method of forming a stringer or an integral stringer and fuselage skin. The apparatus may be a solid bladder made of silicone, urethane, or any similar material or combination thereof. The method may comprise placing composite material onto a surface of a tooling having a channel sized and shaped to correspond to a desired stringer size and shape. Then the solid bladder may be placed onto the composite material relative the channel. The shape of the solid bladder may correspond to the shape of the channel. Composite material may then be placed over the solid bladder, vacuum-sealed against the bladder and the tooling, and cured to harden the composite material, thereby forming a stringer or an integral stringer and fuselage skin.

Apparatus and method for manufacturing an aircraft stringer

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Rose Hill, KS, United States of America

Darrell A Wade