Aircraft Structures

Products:  

• Airframe and Control Surfaces
• Internal Support Structures

Cobham's Role:

Development

• Tool Design
• Process Engineering
• Qualification

Production

• Sustained Production up to 120 Components/Month

Core Manufacturing Processes & Materials:

• Compression Molding
• Carbon & Glass
• Epoxy, BMI

Successes:

• Develped & Qualified Process
• Developed & Qualified Production Line

Cobham Composite Products has produced and delivered over 11,000 composite components for Unmanned Air Vehicles in support of U.S. Army and Marine Corps Systems and manned aircraft in support of the U.S. Air Force. 

Cobham is currently producing aircraft structural components for Unmanned Aerial Vehicle systems. We produce fuselages, wings, control surfaces, sensor housings and internal support structures. A variety of materials and manufacturing processes are employed depending upon component size, tolerance and surface finish requirements. Materials include woven and uni-directional graphite, glass and Kevlar reinforcements. Molding processes include hand lay up/autoclave cure, compression molding, bladder molding and vacuum bag/oven cure. Strength to weight goals are achieved using a variety of foam cores which are custom shaped for each application. Sub-assembly operations are completed on some components including integration of bulkheads and internal reinforcing ribs and spars and more complex operations including alignment and installation of control surfaces onto wing structures including the installation of actuation mechanisms into the molded structures. Finishing operations include attachment of fasteners, bonding and painting.

ScanEagle

Cobham currently produces the EO Dome, Engine Cowl and winglet sub-assemblies for the Insitu ScanEagle™ air vehicle. Over 3,000 components have been delivered on time to date. Each bladder molded winglet is completed by attaching a foam core bladder molded rudder, attaching actuator hardware and final painting. Each complex EO Dome assembly includes a molded EO sensor housing and cover. Each component is bladder molded, trimmed, drilled and assembled. Three engine cowl assemblies are molded. Each component is bladder molded, trimmed, drilled and painted. Integral spar attachments are bonded to the two sections to complete the fuselage sub-assembly; the bladder molded sensor housing is attached with post molded fuselage clips.

RQ-14 Dragon Eye UAV

Cobham completed production of all components of the Dragon Eye air vehicle. Over 500 air vehicles were delivered on-time to prime contractor AeroVironment. Cobham compression molded and assembled the foam core wings including integrally molded spars; the compression molded tail section with separately attached fuselage mating hardware; bladder molded the lower fuselage and the complex compression molded center wing section with integral spar attachments and bonded the two sections to complete the fuselage sub-assembly; and the bladder molded sensor housing with post molded fuselage clips.

Composite Cable Race

Cobham currently produces a high-temperature Composite Cable Race. Thirty-nine components have been delivered to date. Each Cable Race is produced by a hand laid-up process in precision tooling, autoclave cured, laser marked, CNC machined, post cured and then CMM inspected before final delivery.