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Materials to Helicopters
This paper contains a brief chronology of the major US developments in the application of composite
materials to helicopters. The major events of each decade from 1940 are described. Some referencesare made to
significant accomplishments in helicopter structures, materials development and the general application of
composites in order to establish a framework for the subject matter. Comments are also made on future trends
and new applications.
Background only reinforcing fibers available were the natural fibers and
some low modulus synthetics. Phenolic molding was a high
T HIS paper contains a brief chronology of the major US
developments in the application of composite materials to
helicopters (omitting turbine engine applications). The paper
pressure process not well suited to the fabrication of complex
shapes. In brief, composites and helicopters had yet to
emohasizes militarv rather than civil R&D because the bulk of establish a firm basis of their own let alone find a common
the progress has taken place in the former sector. ground. However, within a short period, major deveiopments
In a review of this tvoe. it is difficult to isolate the subiect in both areas would mark the beginnings of their modern eras
matter from broader ddvilopments in the areas of helicopter and the application of composites to helicopters would soon
technology, structures, materials, and general aerospace ap- follow.
plication of composites. Therefore, some references are made
to significant accomplishments in these broader areas to place
the subject matter in the proper perspective. Some references The Period 1940 Through 1949
to foreign R&D work are also included. The event that marked the beginning of the modern era of
Beginning with the 1940s. the major events of each decade composites was the commerciaiavail~bilityof fiberglass in
are described. Prior to 1940, there were no practical compos- 1940. Epoxy resins had been patented and produced in Switz-
ite materials (from an aerospace viewpoint) and no practical erland in the late 1930s, but within this country polyester resin
helicopters. However, some interesting earlier parallels or was the nrincinal matrix material throuahout the 1940s and
coincihencec in the two technologies have occurred. As early well into'the 1950s. The combination of liberglass and polyes-
as the Renaissance (circa 1500), both the concept of vertical ter comoriscd the first aerospace-grade
. . com~ositematerial. In
flight by means of powered airscrews and the concept of World w a r I1 this material saw application to radomes, fair-
reinforcement of a weaker material through the introduction ings and rocket launch tubes.
of stronger and stiffer fibers were known and documented in 1940 was also distinguished by the free flight of what is gen-
the works of da Vinci.' Within this century, 1909 was a erally considered to be the first practical helicopter, the
milestone year for both technologies with the first successful Vought-Sikorsky VS-300. Its fuselage and landing gear struc-
helicopter flight and the development of the first plastic suit- ture was a metal truss partially covered with fabric. The main
able for laminating ( p h e n ~ l i c ) .1922
~ was also doubly signifi- rotors were steel tubes with a wood and fabric aerodynamic
cant in that a US patent was awarded to Robert Kemp of the covering. Two years later the Sikorsky R-4 became the first
Westinghouse Corporation for the concept of an all compos- helicopter t o enter US military service. The R-4 was primarily
ite airframe3 while the first US Army helicopter contract of truss/fabric construction with some removable sheet metal
$19,800 was awarded to George de Bothezat. De Bothezat's covering in the forward fuselage. The rotor was again a steel
helicopter reached a height of several feet but the concepts tube with wood and fabric fairings. The Sikorsky R-5A which
contained in the Kemp patent languished for almost two followed in 1943 had a similar blade concept but the fuselage
decades. center section was covered with a composite of wood and
The pre-1940 period can best be summarized as a search for plastic. The R-5A forward fuselage used all metal con-
a practical starting point for the development of both helicop- struction. The tail section was wood monocoque. The
ters and composite materials. The eariier helicopters con- Sikorsky R-6A, which was also introduced in 1943, had the R-
tninprl I h~urilrlerinrrvnrietv nf eoncentr. In comnnsites. the 4 tvne rotor blade but the fuselaee had naoer/olastic com-
JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN HELICOPTER SOCIETY
posite molded cowlings and a fiberglass reinforced plastic materials (Fig. I). An experimental FRP landing gear for the
. , floor cover in^.
(FRP) - The rest of the fuselage . was metal YH-32 was also built and tested but was not put into produc-
monocoque. tion. In 1953 Glenview Metal Products built a GMP-2 Flyride
Through World War I1 almost two dozen different US heli- helicopter with a main rotor blade of laminated spruce for-
copters were developed and flown. The all metal covered Bell ward of the 30% chord and FRP skins on a balsa wood core
Model 42 which flew in 1945 indicates the extent that aft of the 30% chord. In the same year Jacobs Aircraft Engine
aluminum sheet metal came to dominate helicopter fuselage Company built and flew a helicopter (Model 104)with a fuse-
construction during this period. lage of welded steel tubes enclosed in a molded FRP skin. In
In the rotor blade area, the first all metal riveted steel rotor 1954 the Air Force contracted with Piasecki Aircraft to design
blade flew on the coaxial Hiller XH-44 in 1944. By the end of an FRP center fuselage section for their H-21 helicopter.
World War 11, an all metal steel and aluminum bonded main Several large composite curved segments of the center fuse-
rotor flew on a Sikorsky S-51. lage were built and static tested by Boeing Vertol (Piasecki's
During the wartime period several experimental composite successor) in 1957. They were made primarily of cocured alu-
components of fixed-wing aircraft were built and tested.' minum honeycomb sandwich construction with composite
These included a Vickers Spitfire fuselage made from hemp/ face sheets and some partial frames (Fig. 2). Boeing Vertol's
phenolic; a Vultee BT-I5 aft fuselage that was flown in 1944, conclusions were that FRP primary structure could be made
and an outer wing of an AT-6 which was static tested at without a weight penalty and the potential existed for lower
Wright Patterson Air Force Base in 1945 but did not fly until structural costs due to simplified fabrication methods. In 1956
almost 10 years later. Prewitt Aircraft Company built three sets of research rotors
In the period immediately following the war, epoxies be- for the Piasecki HUP-2 aircraft. One was made of stainless
came commercially available in the US and the automated fil- steel, one of titanium, and one of FRP. The details of this de-
ament winding process was developed. At least two dozen ad- sign are not known but it may have been the first all compos-
ditional US helicopter designs flew before the close of the ite blade to fly on a helicopter. Parsons also built experimen-
1940s. The Bell Model 47 was the first to be commercially cer- tal blades for the H-21 from stainless steel and FRP in the
tified in 1946. In 1947 Cornell Aero Lab built the first rotor same period. Bell built an FRP cabin enclosure skin for its
blades which used some FRP construction. These blades had Model 47 in 1956.
wood spars with FRP skins and flew on a Sikorsky R-5. This Two of the most significant events of the late 1950s went al-
was a year before the first production all metal rotor blades most unnoticed at the time. They were the appearance of the
flew on the Sikorsky S-52. Plastic fuel tanks appeared as early first graphite fibers in 1958 and the first boron fibers in 1959.
as 1948. Magnesium skins were in production as early as 1949. These fibers were expensive lab curiosities whose mechanical
By the end of the 1940% all metal semi-monocoque fuse- properties underwent great improvements in the early 1960s.
lages and hybrid steel/wood rotor blades were accepted prac- However, their appearance eventually led to the flood of ac-
tice in helicopter design. The future trend appeared to be in tivity in aerospace structural applications of composites that
the direction of all metal blades. Composites had made few began in the mid-60s and continues to this day.
inroads except in R&D and prototype development. Through- In summary, the period of 1950 through 1959 was marked
out the 1940s both helicopters and composite materials had by general acceptance of the helicopter as an agricultural tool,
grown in status from somewhat vague experimental concepts an emergency civil vehicle, and a military transporter; having
to viable realities. However, the extent of their future poten- proved its worth in the Korean War. Existing rotor blade de-
tial remained uncertain. It would take another war and the sign practice had changed from wood or hybrid wood/metal
realization of the shortcomings of metal construction to
merge the two technologies and firmly establish their present
roles.
to all metal. Fuselage technology had changed only to the ex- baseline metal design. It did this by reducing the part and
tent that the all metal fuselage was more firmly established fastener counts and by designing and tooling to minimize
than ever. FRP composites had become an acceptable candi- composite fabrication cost.
date for application to secondary structure only. Even the With the advent of advanced composites, their applicability
R&D efforts of the time had not explored the application of to helicopter structures was investigated in a 1966 Bell study.4
composites to primary helicopter flight structure, beyond a This work showed, rightfully at the time, that there were no
few isolated tests. major benefits in applying composites to helicopters except in
the rotor blade area. Only the subsequent appearance and
The Period 1960 Through 1969 gradual reduction in the cost of graphite fibers and the ap-
The 1960s saw a substantial increase in the level of activity pearance of Kevlar fibers several years later would change the
of composite applications within the general aerospace com- basis of this conclusion. As a result, emphasis shifted for the
munity. This was stimulated by the first commercial availabil- remainder of the decade to the rotor blade area. By 1968 Si-
ity of the advanced composites, boron/epoxy, followed by korsky had flown a boron composite tail rotor on an S-61
graphite/epoxy a few years later. The specific mechanical (Fig. 4) and the same year marked the beginning of the all
properties of these composites were sufficient to assure signif- boron composite Advanced Geometry Blade program for the
icant weight savings over the light alloys in almost all applica- Boeing Vertol CH-47 main rotor (Fig. 5).' An all FRP version
tions. This had seldom been the case with FRP. On this basis, of this blade was built soon afterward.
the 1963 Air Force Project Forecast recommended that ad- By the end of the decade, dozens of aerospace components
vanced composite primary structure become a major R&D had been built out of advanced composites, but these mate-
thrust. This in turn led to the formation in 1965 of the Ad- rials made no substantial production inroads until the 1970s.
vanced Composites Division of the Air Force Materials Lab In the meantime, NASA began working on composite rein-
with the funds to pursue that goal. forced metal concepts for fuselages and lifting surfaces. This
Much of the early emphasis was on fixed-wing lifting sur- would soon lead to helicopter applications.
faces which were generally stiffness critical and showed the In summary, the decade of the 1960s, mainly through the
most promise for advanced composite application. However, experiences gained in Southeast Asia, saw the utilization of
rotor blades were the beneficiary of some of the effort. De- the helicopter expanded from that of a transport vehicle to
spite this work, all metal rotor blades continued to dominate
helicopter technology of the 1960s. Change was manifest
mostly in the increased use of metal honeycomb sandwich
construction and the reduction in the numbers of mechanical
fasteners in blades, as a result of fatigue problems associated
with fasteners. There was a corresponding increase in empha-
sis on adhesive bonding as a means of reducing or eliminating
fasteners.
The early 1960s saw the introduction of several composite
rotor blade designs. Among these were the Kaman H43-B
blade of 1960 which had a wood core and FRP skins on the
afterbodies. The Boeing Vertol CH-47 blade of 1961 consisted
of a steel D spar with aluminum ribs and FRP skins. In 1962,
Kaman flew an all FRP blade on the HH-43B. The cost of this
blade, with its on-for-one metal part replacement philosophy,
was too high to compete with production metal designs.
In the composite fuselage area, an important development
program of the 1960s was the Sikorsky in-house program that
led to the cocured FRP cockpit for the H-53 (Fig. 3). This pro-
gram was particularly significant because it succeeded in sub-
stantially reducing the cost of this complex assembly over the
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SECTION B-B
1980s. " Progress has also been made toward thc initiation of "Cresap, Wesley, L, Myers. Alan W. and Viswanathan, Sathy P.,
an Armv/NASA Inleerated Tcchnoloav Rotor/Fliaht "Design and Development Tests of a Four-Bladed Light Helicopter
Research R o t o r (ITRIFRR) project whichwill probably a s - Rotor System," Presented at the 34th Annual Forum of the American
similate the comnosite rotor. comoosite h u b a n d bearingless Helicopter Society, Washington, D.C., May 1978.
.
I6Zinberg, H. and Symonds, M.F., "The Development of an
main rotor concepts into a single composite rotor system Advanced Composite Tail Rotor Driveshaft," Presented at the 26th
sometime in the mid-1980s. With the c o m ~ l e t i o nof these nro- Annual Forum of the American Helicopter Society, Washington,
grams, the all composite helicopter will' he a reality in- the D.C., June 1970.
R&D sense. History has shown that production applications 17Wright, C.C. and Baker, D.J., "Cooperative Program for
will not h e far behind. Design, Fabrication and Testing of High Modulus Composite
T h e ~ r i m a r vremaining...
gaps in the a n ~ l i c a t i o nof com- Helicopter Shafting-Progress Report No. 3," Organic Materials
positesto helifopters a r e the completion &he R&D work o n Branch, Applied Science Division, Large Caliber Weapons System
comnosite transmission cases, landing gear a n d drive shaf- Lab., US Army Armament R&D Command Report ARLCD-TR-
ting: and ultimately, the phasing o f t h i b R & D into manufac- 79028, June 1980.
Is Jakubowski, Joseph and Yankovoy, Alexander, "Fabrication of
turing technology and production. This will include improved
Boron-Hybrid Swashplates, Presented at the 30th Annual Forum of
NDI a n d repair methods, less labor a n d energy intcnsivc man- the American Helicopter Society, Washington, D.C., May 1974.
ulacturing, a n d more comprehcn.;ivr flight service results. We I9Chase, Vance A,, "Investigation of the Use of Carbon Com-
have already seen an increa.;cd emphasis o n manufacturing posite Materials for Helicopter Transmission Housing Applications,"
technology t o assure a producible, good quality product a t a n US Army Applied Technology Lab. Report USAAMRDL TR-73-7,
affordable cost. July 1973.
None o f this will represent the last word i n the technology. 20Maveriak. R.J. and Sinelev. G.T.. Ill. "Comoosite Rotor Hub."
Large improvements remain t o b e made in the more efficient presented at ihe 33rd ~ n & a i ' F o r u i of the ~ h e r i c a n~ e l i c o p k r
application of these materials i n t h e content of current design Society, Washington, D.C., May 1977.
2'Zinberg, Herbert, "An Advanced Composite Tailboom for the
.
conceds.. a n d later. t h e develnment o f new design - concents AH-IG Helicopter," Presented at the 29th Annual Forum of the
better suited t o these materials a n d requirements. Also, the American Helicopter Society, Washington, D.C., May 1973.
materials a n d requirements a r e changing. There will he newer 22Winny, H.F., "Use of Composites in Helicopters, Advantages
VTOL concepts a n d newer fibers, matrices a n d forms o f and Disadvantaaes." AGARD Conference Proceedinas No. 112 on
reinforcement. Tougher reauirements i n crash-worthiness, Impact of ~ o k p o s i t e Materials on Aerospace -vehicles and
maintainability and decreaseh vulnerability seem likely. How- Propulsion Systems, Sept. 1972.
ever. the nrecise direction a n d magnitude o f emnhasis for this 23Welge, R.T., "Application of Boron/Epoxy Reinforced
or i n y L t u r e R&D must always remain uniertain by its Aluminum Stringer for the CH-54B Helicopter Tail Cone. Phase I:
nature. Design, Analysis, Fabrication, and Test." NASA CR-111929, July
1971.
uBrown, Henry J., "Composite Helicopter Tail Booms,"
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Oct. 1971. lSRich, Melvin I. and Foye, Raymond L.. "Low Cost Composite
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