A&P Technology awarded contract for attritable aircraft primary structure

 

 

A&P Technology Inc. (Cincinnati, Ohio, U.S.) has been awarded an $8.9 million contract from the Air Force Research Laboratory (Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Dayton, Ohio, U.S.) for the Design for Manufacture of Attritable Aircraft Primary Structure program. This contract is focused on braiding large textile preforms for primary composite attritable aircraft structures.

A&P Technology reports that the work calls for an alternative design and manufacture to make the aircraft structure more unitized and employing the use of automated fabrication processes, with the goal of reducing manufacturing costs.

This project is the result of a Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) Phase III Acquisition. 

A&P designs and manufactures the world’s largest and most advanced braiding machinery in-house, enabling the handling of large primary structures, as well as the ability to quickly build new dedicated work cells to support rapid development. For this program, A&P will use its second largest braiding machine, an 800-carrier machine. (The company’s largest machine, an 864-carrier braider, was introduced this month.)

Work will be performed at the company’s facilities in Cincinnati, Ohio, and is expected to be completed by May 31, 2021.