Starmet Aerocast has produced castings for the Boeing Sikorsky RAH-66 Comanche helicopter using its new Beralcast beryllium-aluminium alloy. The complex investment castings will be used in the Comanche's Lockheed Martin electro-optical sensor system (EOSS).
Massachusetts-based Starmet, which is under contract to produce three ship-sets of 58 Beralcast parts for the Comanche EOSS, says that the new castable alloy is 25% lighter and three times stronger than aluminium.
The alloy is mixed and cast at the same time using an induction-heated vacuum tilt/pour furnace. Development of the alloy, which has been co-funded by Lockheed Martin, was started under the US"Star Wars" ballistic-missile defence programme in an effort to find an alternative to beryllium for use in mirrors.
Meanwhile, final assembly of the second scout-attack RAH-66 Comanche helicopter prototype is approaching completion at Sikorsky's plant in Stratford, Connecticut.
The aircraft will be delivered in December to the company's Development Flight Center in West Palm Beach, Florida, where it will join the first aircraft as a back-up machine.
Source: Flight International
