Machining for NASA

Lonny

Administrator
Staff member
Around the end of July of this year, our machine shop had the opportunity to machine four window frame assemblies that were installed into a Gulfstream III aircraft to acquire important data and flight imagery of the Hayabusa 2 spacecraft capsule's return to earth.

20200727_211503.jpg

Finished machining side one. The material for the frames had to have certification from the manufacturer, ultrasonic testing, and coupon samples had to be sent to an independent lab for failure analysis.

20200802_195319 (1).jpg

The outer flange had to be machined to a specific radius to match the profile of the Gulfstream's fuselage. All surfaces had to meet or exceed a 32rms finish.

20200812_134347.jpg

After machining and blending a CMM inspection report was done on the entire part to verify the dimensions and location of every surface and hole.
After inspection, they were shipped to a lab for dye penetrant inspection.

20200913_155231.jpg


20200913_155242.jpg


20200913_155250.jpg

After passing all of the testing requirements the holes were tapped and then they were shipped to be hard anodized. After they returned they were reinspected and locking helicoils were installed.

You can see some installed shots of the windows in the videos that Nasa Langley posted on Twitter.


There were quite a few components that we machined and we also cut out various red high temp silicone gaskets.

20200819_085713 (2).jpg


20200824_183023 (1).jpg


20200825_071834.jpg


20200913_101938 (2).jpg
 
Last edited:

Desert Sasqwatch

Goblin Guru
Great work on the window frames, they turned out well. Hopefully DF will win more contracts like this one, especially if they liked your work, and invite your bids for future work.
 

ctuinstra

Goblin Guru
Very interesting! You all must be very proud to be able to provide this service to the program.

I don’t suppose this means there could be an aircraft kit available in the future?
 
Top