washington business
The $1 billion, 1.3 million square-foot 777X manufacturing plant With that, the company decided carbon fiber would be the
will produce carbon fiber airplane wings measuring longer than 105 material of choice to construct the company’s Cyclops 2 manned
feet beginning in 2016.
submersible.
“The wing doesn’t exist yet today,” said Eric Lindblad, vice president “Carbon fiber is three times better than titanium on a strength
and deputy program manager of the
777X program and 777X wing general
manager. “Boeing started with 787
wing design and learned a lot,
particularly about the design process
and how to optimize the new carbon
fiber wing for production and keep
the structural integrity.”
The wing has equivalent strength
but is significantly lighter.
But make no mistake — it’s not
just large aerospace manufacturing
operations realizing the advantages
of carbon fiber.
World-renowned Pocock Racing
Shells (see story on page 47) builds
elite carbon fiber racing boats.
Andrea Buch, head of Pocock’s
customer relations, says that the
proximity to Boeing allows her
company to readily locate and access new sources for carbon
fiber materials and other new-age resources to improve the
performance and design of their boats.
OceanGate, a company that operates manned submersibles
and is designing and building a new submersible constructed
of carbon fiber, is at the cutting edge of underwater scientific
— Eric Lindblad, vice president and deputy program manager of the
exploration and tourism.
777X program and 777X wing general manager
“The inspiration for building small submarines was that
it was nearly impossible to buy a small submarine and very few to density basis and that’s what you want — it’s not strength to
were available for rent and even fewer for research purposes,” said weight; it’s strength to density and displaced volume that matters,”
Stockton Rush, CEO of OceanGate. “Given the space in the ocean Rush explained. “But, there is not a lot of data on how it holds up in
and how much work is being done Ѽ