In the past, one key to success in the aircraft industry, which now appears to be equally important in the space vehicle industry, was the capability to design and fabricate high efficiency structures. Honeycomb construction, developed to provide local stiffness at a low weight, represents such a structure. It has been highly developed and widely applied using adhesive bonded aluminum operable to 300°F. As early as 1942 adhesive bonding of aluminum received considerable attention from the Martin Co. and U. S. Plywood, but it was not until 1952 that the same type configuration was attempted in high temperature resistant metal construction. Since then volumes of background data have been accumulated by practically every major airframe contractor and subcontractor. The advent of supersonic vehicles such as the B-58 and RS-70 resulted in the requirement for structures to operate at 600 to 800°F. Brazed titanium and high temperature alloy honeycombs were developed to meet the requirement and are now in production. Recently the advent of hypersonic and lifting re-entry vehicles has increased the desired operational temperature to 2400°F because of strength at temperature requirements and where only refractory metals are feasible. The composite of all these studies is the capability to build large high performance aircraft and spacecraft but additional technical rewards and refinements will continue to be produced in this field for years to come. The advantages of honeycomb in the construction of supersonic aircraft and space vehicles are so great that it is worth the tremendous effort necessary to determine the answers to the many processing problems that have, and are continuing to arise. High strength, lightness, thermal compression and torsion are some of the characteristics in which honeycomb sandwich structures excel (see Fig. 1).
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| Number of Pages : | 32 |
| Published : | 1963 |
