A team at the Office of Naval Research has developed a process that streamlines the manufacture of canopies for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. In time, the innovation could trim as much as $125 million from the program’s costs, ONR stated. The present process involves placing each canopy into an acrylic shell, and heating it to 200 degrees for as many as six days. In the new process, four remote cameras monitor an integrated control system that calculates how quickly the canopy takes shape. The control system adjusts clamps automatically throughout the process until it is complete – typically in four days.
