NederlandsThermoplastic skin TAPAS project is being assembled
On November 18th 2011, Fokker Aerostructures production manager Jan Luijten toured the Gulfstream G650 assembly jig with TAPAS (Thermoplastic affordable primary aircraft structure) project team members and employees of NL Agency (an agency of the Dutch ministry of economic affairs).
Torsion box skin completed
On June 10th 2011, the TAPAS torsion box demonstrator skin was shipped from Hoogeveen to the Fokker Aerostructures Papendrecht facility. The skin was manufactured successfully in May of 2011. It will be instrumented with strain gauges and optimcal fibres for SHM and then assembled into a torsion box. A full scale static, dynamic and damage tolerance test campaign will start later in 2011 at the Dutch Aerospace Laboratory. The fuselage demonstrator will be manufactured in the first half of 2012.
First TAPAS full size skin for the torsion box demonstrator
In February 2011, a first TAPAS full size skin for the torsion box demonstrator was manufactured successfully. The panel was fiber placed in Hoogeveen, the Netherlands. It features butt joint stiffeners, which make one-shot co-consolidation possible. It will be showcased at the JEC Composites Exhibition in Paris on 28 - 30th of March (www.jecccomposites.com), stand W26.
