SaoPaulo. 13 June 2018. Akaer – company certified as Strategic Defense Company, controlled by Brazilian shareholders and independent management – designed Gripen’s fighter rear fuselage which was recently approved after load tests campaign.
Akaer’s Engineers and technicians developed a new rear fuselage for Gripen fighters E to the Brazilian Air Force (FAB). The new project takes advantage of the technology and experience developed by Saab in the previous aircraft version, redesigning the fuselage from basic concept up to the detail design, in order to fulfill the new flight requirements.
Akaer has developed an innovative structural architecture to meet the new fighter requirements such as powerful engine, new avionics, new features and enhanced durability. To achieve that, a new engine attachment, lateral panels, engine bay door and empennage attachment was developed. Those changes allowed the new structures to meet the severe thermal, flight, landing and takeoff loads, typical of supersonics fighters.
The company also adopted new concepts in other structures. The engine bay door presents a different concept and material once compared to the previous fighter versions, which results in significant improvements in weight / resistance / durability ratio.
The APU bay (Auxiliary Power Unit), a kind of power generator, was also redesigned to meet the fighter requirements in terms of high temperatures and vibrations. “We added a lot of value to that structure. It took years to develop the new design and another year to run the load tests at Saab headquarters in Sweden, where the project was validated. We are very proud of what we have achieved with this project, which is a real proof of Akaer capability to participate on extremely complex projects”, commented Cesar Augusto Teixeira Andrade e Silva, president and CEO of Akaer.
The rear fuselage load tests simulates all aircraft maneuvers during operations, and applies a 50% higher load to the aircraft structure in order to meet certification requirements. The load tests used approximately 140 strain gauges to measure stress at the critical points in the structure.
