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DOI: 10.1361/154770205X55009 1547-7029 / $19.00

D • E • S • I• G • N A • P • P • R• O • A • C • H • E • S

A Milestone for Composites in Aviation

E
ngineers have long known that
composites offer better per-
formance properties than
metals for pressurized vessels such as
large airplanes: Composite materials
are stronger, lighter, and resistant to
corrosion and fatigue. Building
successfully with composites would
also eliminate the labor-intensive
process involved in constructing a
metal airplane—riveting cur ved
aluminum panels in place on a steel
framework, which requires thousands
of parts, most of them tiny fasteners.
The challenge has been bringing the
cost of making composite structures
in line with commercial realities.
Developing new design approaches to
make this possible, along with new
tooling and manufacturing processes,
is a challenge The Boeing Company
Full-scale one-piece composite fuselage section for the Boeing 787. Photo courtesy of The Boeing
recognizes as the future of aviation. Company
The January 2005 presentation of the
first full-scale one-piece composite
fuselage section for its 787 Dreamliner the end. The cross section of the piece Gillette explained that the fuselage
revealed a step into that future. is not circular. The bottom half, where of an airplane is built around a hollow
The section, which measures 7 m cargo and baggage is stored, is a semi- cylindrical skeleton that looks like a
(22 ft.) long and nearly 6 m (19 ft.) circle. The top half, where passengers birdcage laid on its side. Narrow hoops
wide, represents the farthest-aft sit, is a slightly larger semicircle. The (frames) trace the circumference of
portion of the passenger cabin. This composites-forming process would the cage. Stringers, or longitudinal
first major development piece of the allow a smooth curve from one sec- supports, run perpendicular to the
787 “is a piece of aviation history,” tion to the other. Successful creation frames, and this lattice is enclosed by
according to Walt Gillette, Boeing of this revolutionary fuselage section skins, which are attached to the
vice president of Engineering, would substantiate the vision of a outside of the structure.
Manufacturing, and Partner Align- commercial-size composite aircraft. Initially, Boeing and its partners
ment. “Nothing like this is already in explored making each barrel of the
At the start of the barrel develop-
production.” 787 fuselage out of several large com-
ment program, the team faced three
challenges: building the barrel, curing posite panels that would be bolted
Barrel Development the barrel, and developing post-cure together to form a cylinder. However,
Challenges processes. using this pattern from aluminum
Boeing’s development team started planes would replicate the problems
out with the most difficult part of Building the Barrel with aluminum planes. Bolting panels
the fuselage, the aft fuselage, which In the January 12, 2005 online together means the edges of those
has multiple curves and tapers toward edition of the Chicago Tribune, panels would have to be thicker to

Journal of Failure Analysis and Prevention Volume 5(4) August 2005 5

 A Milestone for Composites in Aviation (continued)

accommodate the bolts; that would

add weight and require many seams
and joints; and those connections
would fatigue like aluminum and re-
quire regular rounds of maintenance.
“It’s not as easy as making the same
pieces you would make with alum-
inum out of a different material,” said
Frank Statkus, vice president of Ad-
vanced Technologies and Processes for
the 787 program, in the online news-
letter Boeing Frontiers. “You have to
design for the material you are using.
In the case of composites, that means
you want a large, integrated piece.
That’s how you take advantage of this
material.”
That’s what led to design of a
single-piece barrel, which would
reduce the weight of the plane as
well as eliminate traditional rivets,
assembly, and costly tools that hold
pieces in place while they are being
bolted together. Boeing already makes
single-piece composite barrels for its
Delta IV rocket booster and for its Interior of the barrel. Photo by Jeff Corwin
Sea Launch rocket, but those are smal-
ler in diameter and not as complex in
curvature. thermal expansion coefficient of • Maintaining vacuum integrity on
iron-nickel alloys. Mounted on a a tool with a surface area of more
The Chicago Tribune reported that spindle, the mandrel spins like the than 325.16 m 2 (3500 ft. 2 ) to
a development model was found in North Sails system, while as many as ensure that there are no bubbles
North Sails Group LLC, one of the eight robotic tape-laying heads from between the layers
premier designers of lightweight a huge rack next to the mandrel expel
composite sails for racing boats. The and apply the carbon-fiber ribbons. “We had team members who were
company had developed a machine able to use analytical tools to predict
that applies composite strips to a Curing the Barrel our success, and that gave the team
spinning barrel using multiple robotic more confidence,” she said.
According to Boeing Frontiers,
tape-laying heads. The method was Laura Bogusch, project manager for
fast and scalable to a much larger the one-piece barrel development, Handling the Barrel
application. Boeing licensed the described the challenges with the cure To pick up the barrel, mandrel
technology from North Sails, then set process as: intact, and move it into an autoclave
out to build a massive cylindrical tube the size and shape of a submarine,
by piecing together six interlocking • Fitting the part into the autoclave Statkus discovered a massive forklift
slabs of metal to form a mandrel. The (pressurized oven) with less than from Sweden that moves on crawlers
metal of choice was Invar (Ugine- 7.62 cm (3 in.) of clearance and carries huge amounts of weight.
Savoie Imphy SA, Ugine, France), a • Achieving an even heat-up on a tool When the curing is complete, the
64Fe-36Ni alloy that has the lowest and a part this size Invar slabs that make up the mandrel

6 Volume 5(4) August 2005 Journal of Failure Analysis and Prevention

are gently removed one piece at a time,
and a robotic cutting machine carves
out the windows and doors.
A Grand Reception
Over 100 engineers watched as the
largest piece of pressure-vessel
carbon-fiber ever made
came out of the autoclave. “Each piece will teach us something about
the fabrication process, the cure process, or our
This one-piece composite
nondestructive inspection techniques.”
fuselage section boasts a
weight savings of almost
20%, meaning lower costs for the
airlines while passengers enjoy bigger
windows, lower cabin altitude
pressurization, and higher cabin
humidity.
Creating these huge pieces is the key
to Boeing’s plan to assemble the 787
in just three days. The fuselage will
essentially be assembled from only
five or six separate major pieces,
joined using titanium splicing plates
with titanium fasteners.
Testing the Barrel
After the unveiling in January,
work quickly resumed. The first com-
posite development barrel sat in its
tooling fixture for less than three days
before Boeing and its partners began
to cut it apart.
Gillette said, “This is not a museum
piece. We built it so we could prove
our concepts and learn better ways of
producing large monolithic composite
structures.”
Journal of Failure Analysis and Prevention
After nondestructive testing was that the issue isn’t one of safety, but
performed, more than 50 pieces were of economics. The structural proper-
cut from the barrel to verify structural
ties of composites are well known, but
integrity and confirm the success of if testing shows that more composite
the new tools and processes. Mark material must be layered on to make
King, also project manager for the the fuselage sound, or if continual
one-piece barrel development, said: procedural modification is required
to achieve the right toler-
ances, weight and costs
could increase.
Production
Each piece will teach us something When production begins in 2007,
about the fabrication process, the cure Boeing subcontractor Vought Air-
process, or our nondestructive inspec- craft Industries will make this piece
tion techniques. It may seem like a in Charleston, S.C. Other parts of the
lot of pieces, but it is very important fuselage—larger, but with less com-
the team knows how close we are to plex curves—will be produced by
meeting all of the engineering and Kawasaki Heavy Industries of Japan,
quality requirements we will need to Alenia of Italy, and Boeing Wichita.
meet in production. Each will use a set of uniquely shaped
The program intends to build seven tools to form its particular section.
more one-piece barrel sections, all of Elsewhere in Boeing’s research
which will have pieces removed for center, Mitsubishi and Boeing are
test and analysis. Gillette concludes, working on the 787 wing manufac-
“We have to analyze it, learn from it turing process.
and continue to improve the way we
build our product so we can gain the The 787 is intended to replace
competitive edge we expect from the Boeing’s aging 767 and challenge
787.” European Airbus SAS in the world-
wide market for passenger planes.
The company is also working on an
With 217 seats, it will be 20% more
automated system to inspect the bar-
fuel efficient than the 767 and is
rel for imperfections such as wrinkles
designed to fly short and long-
and missing fibers. Paul Legace, an
distance routes.
aeronautical engineer at the Mass-
achusetts Institute of Technology,
who has consulted with Boeing, states
Volume 5(4) August 2005 7