MDC is awarded NASA wing work

NASA HAS SELECTED McDonnell Douglas to build and test a full-scale, all-composite, airliner wing under an eight-year, $160 million contract. MDC has already delivered a wing-box test section under a previous phase of NASA's Advanced Composites Programme.

The wing will be produced using MDC's stitched resin-film intrusion process, a form of resin-transfer moulding in which pre-woven dry material is stitched together with wing components, such as stringers and spar caps, then the resin is introduced just before autoclave curing.

MDC says that the process avoids the cost of refrigerating pre-impregnated composites, extends the time available to work with the material before curing, and increases the durability and damage tolerance of the wing. The wing-box test specimen is undergoing final testing at NASA.

Source: Flight International