Marshall have an extensive heritage of design, testing and certifying structural composite structures on multiple Aerospace and Defence platforms including supporting the design & development of lightweight fast jet launchers, which are to be used on trial aircraft for the UK Royal Air Force (RAF).
The developmental launchers will be used on flight trials to assess ground breaking new weapons systems. Marshall have been employed to undertake the structural design and rigorous ground based qualification testing of the structure on behalf of our customer.
Working collaboratively with our customer throughout the design process to integrate all of the sub-systems and systems requirements into the composite structure, these highly complex and critical composite assemblies form the attachment between the aircraft and the weapon.
The composite structure provides a very high level of rigidity whilst optimising weight. The rigidity enables the launcher to react to extreme forces whilst the aircraft operates at supersonic speeds and flight positions to support successful launch of the weapon whilst operating in harshest of environments.
The development programme used Marshall’s own characterised materials database, meeting the stringent requirements of MIL-HDBK-17, for military and civil aircraft operations. These materials, used by our expert design engineers, within a combination of CATIA V5 for product design and NASTRAN for structural analysis detailed the product to meet all of the requirements for a military platform from structural, geometric and environmental such as bird strike, vibration, temperature, humidity and lightning strike. Following our robust lifecycle management process for new product introduction, Marshall progressed towards manufacture ground based qualification test units which underwent a thorough structural test regime over an extended duration to prove all performance characteristics could be met. Once this testing was complete, flight testing will be conducted by the RAF.
Working with a breadth of capabilities and experience within Marshall, a tailored solution to bespoke customer demands was achieved and we are very proud of what the team have delivered.