A new low cost resin system has been used to produce a composite elevator. Vacuum infusion has been used as low cost, non-autoclave, room temperature production process. The innovative design which is characterized by a high degree of integration helps reduce assembly cost. A top-down certification approach, in combination with a fully computerized process control helps to speed up the implementation of these new materials, processes and designs and bring down the certification costs. This is demonstrated by the design and production of a simplified elevator construction. The research was financially supported by the Netherlands Agency for Aerospace Programmes and was carried out jointly by Stork Fokker and Lightweight Structures B.V. .

If you like to read further about this development, please download the lowcostaerospace.pdf paper that we presented in April 2004 at the SAMPE Europe Conference & Exhibition in Paris (260 kB)! !