Historicalarchived

AFRL Delivers C-17 Emergency Escape Door to Warfighter

AIR FORCE RESEARCH LAB

AAAI endeavors to streamline the design process by involving both the material manufacturer and the airframe manufacturer in all phases of product development. AFRL teamed with Alcoa, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and Northrop Grumman with the ultimate goal to cut the installed cost of aluminum aerostructures by at least 50% and reduce associated maintenance requirements, achieving lower life-cycle costs while increasing performance. The C-17 escape door was the fi rst AAAI effort.

Applications

Military and Commercial Significance:
Through the Advanced Aluminum Aerostructures Initiative (AAAI)
program, AFRL is working to cut production costs for advanced aluminum
aerospace structures for both the Department of Defense and commercial
aircraft companies. AFRL’s new C-17 emergency escape door design
contains fewer parts and saves manufacturing costs over previous C-17
escape door designs.
AFRL partnered with the aluminum producer Alcoa (the primary
contractor) and Boeing (the C-17 manufacturer) to redesign the C-17’s
emergency escape door. The original escape door was an aluminum
structure consisting of 113 parts, whereas the new door is forged and
high-speed-machined from a single piece of aluminum and has only 21
parts. The process for fabricating the new door will save an estimated
30% in manufacturing costs over the old model.

Provenance

Original: https://dodtechmatch.com/dod/successstories/view.aspx?id=60072
Archived copy: Wayback Machine snapshot

This record was recovered from a public web archive of dodtechmatch.com and is preserved for historical reference. It may be outdated. Not affiliated with the U.S. Department of Defense. Contact details from the original listing have been withheld.