Low-cost supersonic missile inlet fabrication technique

This paper presents a technique that allows for the fabrication of complex shapes to high accuracy without the expense of conventional machining. The savings associated with using this new approach over conventional fabrication methods directly resulted in an 85% reduction in fabrication costs. This technique was demonstrated in the fabrication of supersonic inlets for a ramjet engine missile. A single computer aided design (CAD) model was used for design and hardware integration, generation of the rapid prototyping computer file for producing a mandrel, finite element modeling of the inlet, development of the final machining tool paths and inspection of the mandrels and finished inlets. The development of this integrated single master model and stereolithography plating process is a major step forward in the area of missile component prototyping and frees the designer to approach component design and fabrication with a new, accurate and relatively inexpensive tool. The savings realized from the use of this technique are directly applicable to the manufacturing of other complex-shaped components both for military and commercial applications