Paterson Composites [PCI] won a large contract to manufacture thin, ultra light carbon tubes for a prototype solar plane, Odysseus by Aurora Flight Sciences.

Project Summary

As the production team lead for this project which ran approximately 10 months, we had to deliver more than 3600 carbon tubes used for trusses in the space-frame [see below] of this huge drone.

There was significant R&D time spent on overall development of the production method; control software and engineering the machine upgrades, making jigs, and the method of machining aluminum rods into polished tooling mandrels to form the carbon fiber around.

The Challenge

Scaling the production method was the initial challenge, to deliver the 3600 tubes was also going to require specialization of equipment with a tolerance of ±0.05mm; essentially nailing both a precise material specification with accurate dimensions in mm for the lay-up procedure [when carbon fibre is placed on tooling] and through running of multiple experiments with methods to polish the aluminum rods.

I devised a consistent and repeatable process to hone polished aluminum rods into tooling that allowed defect free release, with total variance of 0.1mm from end to end. This was replicated on a specialized computer-controlled lathe setup and was key to hitting volume production. In total, ~70 mandrels were created to ensure production cycles ran 2 or 3 times a day for the duration of the project.

I collaborated on the continuous improvement of R&D for specially designed hardware and software created by our small agile team at PCI for this project as well. This included iteratively refining the control program interface UX/UI elements for carbon filament winding; logic [operator user flow, error handling] and parameters with the Chief Engineer, and upgrades for the purpose built high temp curing oven and computer.

Results

I gained a great deal of specialized knowledge of ultra light carbon construction through being hands-on for all the processes and procedures; near the end of the project I lead the winding development of a new production method and unique curing process specifically for landing gear prototypes.

Overall defects dropped to <4% over the ~3600 piece run in spite of only partial automation, and we hit all our quarterly shipping dates.

Finally, in Nov of 2018, Aurora revealed Odysseus to the press and in the spring of 2019 it took off from Portugal. It can stay in the upper atmosphere for months!

Odysseus is the world’s most capable, solar-powered, autonomous aircraft ready to deliver your mission from the stratosphere. This High-altitude Pseudo-Satellite (HAPS) provides the biggest payload capacity available in persistent, solar aviation.

Aurora Flight Sciences – Press release

You can read the release from Aurora Flight Sciences here: https://www.aurora.aero/odysseus-high-altitude-pseudo-satellite-haps/