UW researchers to help build the 7E7

On Thursday, the university won funding from the Federal Aviation Administration for a research center that will help build The Boeing Co.'s new 7E7 and other lightweight, fuel-efficient commercial planes of the future.


		Joshua Trujillo / P-I
	University of Washington aeronautics professors Kuen Lin, left, and Eli Livne examine a student-built aircraft made of composite material yesterday in Seattle. The UW won funding for a center to research composite materials to be used in planes, including Boeing's 7E7.

The FAA will provide as much as $500,000 a year for three years to create the Center for Excellence in Advanced Materials. The university and private industry, led by an initial Boeing pledge of nearly $250,000, will contribute another $500,000 a year for those years.

"This composites research center is a great boost to the future of manufacturing in Puget Sound," Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., said in announcing the award.

Research into advanced, composite materials will play a major role in construction of Boeing's new plane, she said, since composites will make up nearly 60 percent of the 7E7.

Composite materials are made from types of fibers, in this case graphite fibers, and epoxies. And because the center also will conduct research in nanotechnology, its range of scientific inquiry will extend from the atomic level to the macro, structural level of a completed plane.

The growing use of the new materials has motivated the FAA, industry and researchers to establish the research hub, according to Mark Tuttle, a UW mechanical engineering professor and co-principal investigator for the new center.

For instance, he said, the entire fuselage of the 7E7, in addition to its wings, will be made from composite materials.

"The big jump" needed now in research, he said, "has more to do with how to produce truly large composite structures economically and high quality with no defects" than creating new types of composite substances.

The center also will focus on education for the industry work force and the next generation of engineers and machinists.

Industry experts and staff from the UW, Washington State University, Oregon State University and Edmonds Community College will participate in education and research at the center.

Tuttle said the center also may lead to increased collaboration and better technology transfer from university researchers to industry and back. That's especially important as composite technology becomes increasingly prevalent, its cost-saving, lightweight qualities increasingly important to the airline industry's sagging bottom line.

Not only is there a need to educate the work force, but the industry and FAA regulators need better tools and methods for analyzing composite material performance during construction and over the lifespan of planes.

"These materials don't behave in the same way as aluminum," Tuttle said.

"We have to worry about durability and maintenance," said Kuen Lin, a UW aeronautics professor and the other co-principal investigator of the center.

On the nanotechnology front, UW professor and center researcher Eli Livne said scientists will manipulate atoms to develop superior, cutting-edge materials.

Adam Bruckner, chairman of the Aeronautics and Astronautics Department, said advances in nanotechnology could eventually include solid materials that will change shape with electronic commands. Imagine, for example, an airplane wing that changes shape without moving parts.

Lin said nanotechnology research will focus in the near term on "coatings" with de-icing capabilities, eliminating the need to spray chemicals on the skin of planes in cold weather.

"What we are proposing is a mix of technologies that are very near term and play a role in the 7E7, and also look at projects that have a longer-term payoff and may revolutionize the industry," Tuttle said.

"The more you know about (composites), the more aggressive you can be in your design," Livne said. The center also signals a historic shift in the aircraft industry.

"We made the change from wood and cloth to aluminum, and now we're making the shift from aluminum to composite materials," Bruckner said.

P-I reporter Jake Ellison can be reached at 206-448-8346 or jakeellison@seattlepi.com

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