A lightweight, low-cost composite fin produced by fiber innovations, Massachusetts Volpore (Walpole), has recently been installed in Bell Helicopter MAPL (Modular affordable Product Line Performed on the aircraft, using braiding and resin transfer molding processes (RTM),

This single-chip horizontal fin significantly reduces costs, while the traditional composite tail cost reduction is to reduce the number of parts, accessories, and related surface pretreatment, bonding, and inspection steps at the expense of.

Fiber Innovations also said that the RTM composite aircraft tail is characterized by easy connection to the machine, which can further reduce assembly costs.、

This horizontal tail area is 11 square feet and is a fixed control plane through the fuselage, fixed by 4 bolts.

The unit also includes an edge support wing and two vertical tail-end connection devices. The 17-pound structure is made from woven, hand-laid, dry-fabric, and RTM processes.

Graphite/Bismaleimide (BMI) components reduce the weight of the existing composite tail, reducing the cost by reducing the number of parts and discarding two times.

The rear wing is a porous box girder structure consisting of 4 full span interior wing beams. These beams are produced using an automatic Tri-axis knitting process, and the skew-AS4 graphite fabric in the shear webs is laid at high speed on 4 cores, while the shaft-free fabric is also laid in the wing beam lid.

The Braided Mandrel forms 4 box girders, and the surface thickness is tapered to accommodate the flexible load distribution of the wingspan. The internal bushing is embedded in the tail to bear the attachment load at the 4 center bolts.

Similarly, the Edge also has a molded groove for mounting nut slats for auxiliary wing connections. The braided mandrel is wrapped in a pair of biaxial fabrics and a single axial fabric to form the tail shell, and the flange used to connect the end plane is integrated with the housing.

The entire fiber-reinforced accessory is performed in a closed cavity mold using cyrec 5250-4-body BMI resin for RTM.

The high-temperature resin allows the tail to withstand the engine exhaust temperature of the lower airflow part of the rotor.

The mandrel is cut at the centerline of the tail fin to make the mold demoulding more convenient. The independent molded parts are trimmed, drilled, and inspected, and the end-plane and edge slats are mechanically reinforced, which can be used for fuselage mounting.

A large number of static and fatigue tests have been conducted before the test flight.