Northrop Grumman Corp. late last month debuted wings for the Model 437 Vanguard technology demonstrator aircraft built by its subsidiary Scaled Composites.
Northrop, at its Palmdale facility, incorporated its digital ecosystem and advanced manufacturing capabilities to develop, analyze and build the wings for the Vanguard aircraft in advance of the plane’s first flight on Aug. 29 from the Mojave Air and Space Port. Scaled Composites is based in Mojave.
Known as the Digital Pathfinder program, the project demonstrated how the company’s fully digital engineering ecosystem reduces engineering rework, accelerates schedules and reduces costs, offering advantages to customers on future aircraft programs.
Scaled Composites leveraged extensive experience in rapid design, fabrication and test of experimental aircraft to develop the Model 437 Vanguard, while Northrop defined, developed, built and verified the removable wing assemblies using advanced digital tools and manufacturing processes as part of its Digital Pathfinder program, the release said.
Colin Miller, vice president of engineering at Northrop Grumman Aeronautics Systems, said the company continues to refine its digital tools and capabilities to improve them for future efforts.
“This project demonstrates how high-fidelity models within our digital ecosystem serve as a single source of truth to streamline testing and certification on future aircraft, significantly saving cost and time for our customer,” Miller said in a statement.
Brian Maisler, the test pilot, said that the first fight of the Vanguard was in a good jet with a great team.
“This is the best part of my job,” Maisler said in a statement. “Thanks to everyone and their two years of hard work culminating in making this an uneventful and fun day.”
The Model 437 began as a conceptual design, based on the Model 401, exploring a multi-mission low-cost attritable – or expendable – aircraft, according to the Scaled release.
The Vanguard is a crewed variant of the original concept powered by a single Pratt & Whitney 535 engine with approximately 3,400 pounds of thrust. The aircraft has a wingspan of 41 feet and is 41 feet long with a gross takeoff weight of 10,000 pounds, the release added.
After completion of envelope expansion, the Vanguard will have a range of approximately 3,000 nautical miles and an endurance of 6 hours. The aircraft can carry up to 2,000 pounds of payload in multiple locations including an internal weapons bay sized to accommodate two AIM-120 advanced medium-range air-to-air missiles, the release said.
