Britain’s GKN Aerospace said it delivered the first complete, state-of-the-art, Future Lynx helicopter airframe on schedule Thursday to Finmeccanica‘s AgustaWestland, the design authority for the program.
“Our goal has been to create a highly effective operational airframe with an extremely efficient design and a truly cost effective manufacturing cycle,” Marcus Bryson, GKN’s CEO said. “We have achieved this through innovations across the manufacturing process and through a close working relationship between AgustaWestland and GKN Aerospace Yeovil and our UK-based supplier team.”
GKN said it achieved challenging technological goals for the airframe that included an 80 percent reduction in parts count when compared with the existing Super Lynx airframe.
In 2006, Britain signed a $1.7 billion deal with Italy’s Finmeccanica for the supply of 70 Future Lynx helicopters to the British armed forces, with the first development phase contract worth about $700 million (Defense Daily, June 23, 2006).
The order was part of the Strategic Partnering agreement between the Ministry of Defence and AgustaWestland, and fulfilled one of the main requirements outlined by the Defence Industrial Strategy of the British government in the helicopter sector. It will send 30 helicopters to the Royal Navy and 40 to the army beginning in 2011.
The Future Lynx will replace the Lynx helicopters currently in service, and will guarantee much higher levels of performance, AgustaWestland has said. It is a medium twin- engine 6.6- ton helicopter specifically designed for multi-role sea and land missions.
Future Lynx benefits from some of the solutions already tested for the Super Lynx 300 currently in production. One of its main features is the capacity to fully integrate data and information from the advanced sensors and communications equipment with which it is equipped.
All the data are shown on four large LCD screens that may be reconfigured in flight, thereby facilitating the execution of the mission and improving the operational efficiency of the crew.
GKN Aerospace said it made extensive use of monolithic machined components, replacing a traditional fabricated detail structure, to realize the dramatic reduction in parts count.
In addition, 3-dimensional digital modeling has ensured highly accurate part-to-part assembly, and state-of-the-art assembly tooling has been introduced that can rotate through 360 degrees and has vertical movement for ease of access.
Assembly personnel then use a stand alone wireless IT workstation to apply digital assembly instructions developed by GKN Aerospace directly from CATIA.
This has eliminated the need for hard copy drawings and will enable future configuration changes to be communicated instantly and efficiently to the required personnel, GKN added.