When lives are on the line, time and strength are mission critical. That’s why the latest heavy-lift military helicopters are designed to carry 17 tons of personnel, equipment and supplies at 200 mph safely to a battlefield 50 miles away.
All of that weight, plus the 16-ton aircraft, hangs from the spinning main rotor, attached to the engine and airframe by a titanium hub assembly forged by ATI. Fully loaded, 88,000 pounds of aircraft and payload depend on our forgings to stay in the sky without fail, mission after mission.
Titanium hub assemblies get the strength and durability to survive combat through ATI forging, which gives us extremely versatile control over the microstructure of the metal. We’re working with customers to improve strength, durability, weight and cost in the next generation of rotor hub assemblies … because so much is hanging in the balance.
