Why RTM Is Top Gun at Lockheed Martin.(Brief Article)

Plastics Technology, February, 2001

Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co., Fort Worth, Texas, has demonstrated the potential for 60% manufacturing cost reduction by using the RTM process to make the vertical tail of the X-35A Joint Strike Fighter. The tail, made of BMI resin and graphite fabric, is said to be one of the largest and most complex parts ever made with RTM. It measures 12 ft along the leading edge and weighs almost 200 lb. Its skins are composed of more than 100 plies and vary in thickness by a factor of four from root to tip. Fourteen different, complex mandrels with continuously variable cross sections were over-braided to create the internal structure. The steel and aluminum mold weighs 10 tons.

The unitized tail structure was cured in a press as a single component. It would replace a...

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