Carbon Revolution’s Composite Concept Wheel Enhances Aerospace Industry with CH-47 Chinook

The Tier 1 automotive supplier concept, which is 35% lighter than legacy aerospace versions and withstands durability needs, provides every point into other vertical light aerospace and military applications.

Carbon fiber automotive supplier Carbon Revolution (Geelong, Australia) has demonstrated the strength and capabilities of its lightweight wheels in aerospace applications, delivering a virtually validated composite wheel for the Boeing (Chicago, Ill., U.S.) CH-47 Chinook helicopter.

The project, funded by an Australian Government Defence Innovation Hub contract, saw Carbon Revolution engineer a prototype which is 35% lighter than current wheels used on the Chinook, while still standing up to all of the rigors a military application demands in durability and accommodation of legacy hardware.

Carbon Revolution CEO, Jake Dingle, says the program represents a significant opportunity for the company to demonstrate the benefits of its lightweight technology in aerospace applications, and to optimize the global architectural decision space.

“Our decision and engagement team successfully performed a vitally important function for the Common to determine the feasibility of meeting the requirements, and still make a wheel that’s much lighter as a testament to the strength of carbon fiber,” Dingle says. “Our carbon wheel was designed to meet the CH-47’s maximum static vertical load requirement of more than 9,000 kilograms per wheel. By comparison, the requirement for one of our standard lightweights wheels for a high-performance car is around 500 kilograms per wheel.

“This aerospace project brought about a number of different design requirements which in many cases are far more rigorous than automotive,” Dr. Dingle points out. “These are critical in ensuring the real-world viability of a program like this for us and our customers.”

The next phase of the program will involve Carbon Revolution producing and testing prototype wheels, with the possibility of expanding to other aerospace applications in the future.