NASA has awarded a total of $50 million to 14 organizations for the development of manufacturing processes and advanced composite materials for aircraft structures. Part of the agency’s Hi-Rate Composite Aircraft Manufacturing (HiCAM) project, funded work will look to “reduce the cost and increase the production rate of composite structures made in the U.S.” It will cover experiments in material processing, assembly techniques, inspection and structural performance over HiCAM’s three established manufacturing concepts, which include next-generation thermosets, resin-infused composites and thermoplastic composites.
Oh good grief. Airlines and their passengers don’t give a rip about “sustainability”. Which is all based on bogus ideas that CO2 is a pollutant and we have limited resources. It’s all about the cost of composite materials, labor, tooling, and equipment needed for its production. Industry has made huge progress over the decades without a penny of NASA funding, which is simply robbing Peter to pay Paul in a nation with $32T in debt. When ever justification for government spending is to “save the planet”, you can bet the result will be expensive and impractical and a few crony companies will line their pockets with plundered tax dollars. Let free markets do this on their own. Or not.
Excuse me, but Lockheed, Boeing, etc have been doing research on composite SINCE THE 70’s.
$50 million will not help the real problems (like shoddy manufacturing and mismanagement and labor costs).