The team designed the patches from a special
ceramic composite material that could survive
wild temperature swings, from minus 250 degrees
Fahrenheit in orbit to a 3,000-degree inferno
caused by the drag of Earth’s atmosphere during
the shuttle’s 17,000 miles-per-hour descent.
“You could bolt it on the wing leading edge in
space and cover the damaged portion,” says
Robert Klacka, technology marketing manager at
GE Ceramic Composite Products. “The repair kit
had 30 different patches that could cover a hole
located on over 80 percent of the wing leading
edge surface. The thin, flexible panels used a
high temperature toggle bolt to attach it
through the hole on the wing. Thankfully, we
never had to use them.”
That’s not entirely true. The shuttle fleet
retired last year, but the materials live on
vicariously inside GE’s innovative LEAP engines,
as steering components for ballistic missile
defense systems, and as rocket motor thrusters
for a new commercial space transportation
aircraft. “The [Space Shuttle] kits were
basically using the same family of materials,”
Klacka says.
Ceramic materials can take a lot of heat but are
notoriously fragile. Just think of the coffee
mug. Scientists at GE Aviation, GE Global
Research and at Klacka’s Delaware plant have
spent the last two decades developing ceramic
composites that are tough and one-third the
weight of the best nickel super-alloys. They can
work beyond the alloys’ melting temperatures, a
property that allows jet engines like the LEAP
to become more efficient.
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