Hello everyone! We will be at EAA AirVenture this week all day Wednesday, July 24 at the UL Power booth 633 in the Homebuilt Aircraft Display section. Come swing by and talk airplanes with us!
Beyond composite parts, we have also manufactured countless machined metal parts for the DarkAero 1 prototype. Our machining journey began nearly 10 years ago when we started out with a common Tormach PCNC 1100. We used this mill to create the majority of machined metal parts in the prototype aircraft which ranged from simple brackets to complicated landing gear components like the nose gear fork.
Recently, we parted ways with our 1100 and progressed to a completely new machine that will dramatically increase our CNC machining capability. Our next video will dive into the details of the new machine along with what parts we will be making on it. Stay tuned!
Mike Fazio 1992-2023
We are devastated to share the news of the passing of Falcon Hockey Alumni, Mike Fazio, after a courageous battle with testicular cancer. Mike was the best teammate, an amazing human being and a true warrior all the way to the end.
One of the drawbacks of using composite materials is the lack of available published data on their mechanical properties. This makes it difficult to design composite structures without first performing some amount of testing to establish the strength and stiffness of the material.
When manufacturing composite parts, the composite part and the composite material itself are usually being created at the same time, and there are many variables that contribute to the mechanical properties of the material. The fiber type, resin type, fiber orientation, layup schedule, manufacturing method, and cure schedule all feed into the properties of the material, so it’s important to test samples that represent the same combination of these variables that will be found in the final part.
While testing equipment and standardized tests form the foundation of structural validation, especially in the certification of aircraft, simple tests are often the best place to start early in the game. A lot of useful information can be obtained relatively quickly through simple tests. For example, samples can be loaded with weights to perform a proof load or ultimate load test and achieve a rough understanding of the material capabilities. If things look promising with simple tests, then more advanced structural testing can be pursued.
There is really no way around some amount of testing with composite materials, so if you are thinking of designing composite structures remember you need to be thinking about testing as well. If you want to learn more about the process of designing, manufacturing, and testing composite structures, check out our courses where we go into more detail and provide hands-on training in these topics! https://t.co/ucsXaO5hUj
Sporting history is best documented using images.
Here’s a thread with some of my all-time favorite pictures of Aaron Rodgers as QB of the Packers.
📸 - Evan Siegle