The Customer
Our client was founded in the early 1980's with a dream to design and build affordable airplanes that deliver greater control, more comfort, and unprecedented levels of safety. Today, they are one of the world's leading innovators of single-engine, piston-powered aircraft.
The Challenge
In the fall of 2008, our client came to Vermont Composites with the need to replace two existing steel external parts, the cabin steps. (The engineer involved in the project had successfully worked with Vermont Composites in the past on medical applications.) The existing steps were heaver than they desired and, more importantly for a company that was committed to producing the world’s best aircraft in their class, the steps were corroding prematurely creating a need for replacement under warranty.
The Solution
Based on our many years of experience manufacturing strong, lightweight aerospace parts, we created an exact duplicate prototype of their steel cabin step in carbon fiber for their evaluation within two weeks.
The Results
We were able to produce a prototype that was, dimensionally, an exact duplicate cabin step and, after painting, looked identical in appearance. The difference was in the weight. Our prototype was less than ¼ of the weight of the original, yet had all the stiffness and strength required for the application. In a market that often equates one pound of weight savings with a value of $100, or more, due to fuel cost savings among other reasons, we were able to immediately save the client over 3.5 pounds. We also eliminated the need for replacement parts due to corrosion, saving them those costs as well as the damage these returns were causing to their image.
Why Vermont Composites?
The client chose Vermont Composites because of our:
- Extensive Experience and Superior Technical Capabilities – Vermont Composites has been manufacturing strong lightweight aircraft components for many years.
- Flexibility to Support Rapid Ramp-Up – Once our client has finalized their design, they want to get it into production as fast as possible to eliminate problems associated with their existing part.
- Outstanding Reputation for Consistent Product Quality and On-Time Delivery – While the Vermont Composites part is relatively trivial in terms of our client’s overall product cost, it is absolutely essential to the quality perception of the overall aircraft.
- Available Production Capacity to effectively handle medium to large volumes as our client’s growth needs dictate.