From engine nacelle components to secondary aerostructures of all sizes, Middle River Aerostructure Systems offers its expertise in assisting the start-up of new product lines, reengineering legacy programs, and taking on overflow production capacity.
MRAS can serve as the extension of a partner’s development and integrated product teams – bringing its proven design and engineering resources, manufacturing engineering skills and materials expertise. These capabilities are based on MRAS’ decades of collaborative experience with leading aerospace industry aircraft and helicopter manufacturers, enabling the company to deliver both build-to-spec and build-to print-solutions.
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Aerostructure shipsets have been delivered since the P-3 life-extension program’s launch by MRAS in 1997
For production and overflow capacity, MRAS offers full-service manufacturing in its 1-million sq. ft. facility on 180 acres northeast of Baltimore, Maryland, with access to road, rail and air transportation infrastructure.
The company’s competence was demonstrated by its role in the P-3 Orion’s Mid-Life Upgrade (MLU) program, replacing fatigue-critical structural components to enable an additional 15,000-plus flight hours for this Lockheed Martin maritime patrol aircraft. MRAS played a key role in the low-risk, cost-effective service life extension program by building new-production horizontal stabilizers, leading edge assemblies, and longeron assemblies for the P-3.
In response to the MLU project’s needs, MRAS undertook a digital industrialization of decades-old 2D drawings and Mylar drafting film, while also fully digitizing and retooling the longeron assemblies, and retooling the leading-edge layup dies. Additionally, MRAS redefined the horizontal stabilizer assembly’s manufacturing philosophy – significantly increasing producibility when compared to the legacy tooling approach.
Other MRAS aerostructures programs have included the production of airframe components for the Boeing Chinook and Apache military helicopters (involving reverse-engineering and the extensive digitalization of 2D drawings and Mylar drafting film for a modernized industrialization process), and the manufacture of composite upper deck fairings and the main rotor pylon for Sikorsky S92 medium-lift helicopters (retooling for low-rate production with the support of MRAS manufacturing engineers).
The company’s engineering services and manufacturing capacity also was utilized for production of the large metallic antenna structure that equips the Boeing 737 Wedgetail airborne early warning and control (AEW&C) aircraft.
