Aug 13 1997
From The Space Library
NASA and the Boeing Company unveiled a new stitching machine that experts believed would change the method of fabricating aircraft wing structures. The demonstration took place at Boeing Stitched Composites Development Center in Huntington Beach, California. The project team of engineers had replaced the large metal structures used in airplanes with strong, but light, composite materials. By reducing the weight of an airplane, engineers hoped to decrease fuel usage, with the eventual result of cost savings for consumers. Rather than using rivets to hold together an airplane's wings, the NASA-developed stitching machine sewed together precut fabric layers in the shape of a wing. Next, the machine added braided stiffener materials to the wing, before setting the wing skeleton with resin. The process created a wing as strong as one built with metal structures, but at a fraction of the weight.
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