Aerospace Industry Takes Interest In Advanced Materials

An Ohio company leveraged Air Force resources to create a new class of advanced materials that attracted millions of dollars in private sector capital as well as investment from the aerospace industry for more widespread adoption. With support from the Air Force Small Business Innovation Research/Small Business Technology Transfer Program, Cincinnati-based General Nano LLC developed carbon fiber composite materials with increased metallic properties. These materials are designed to reduce weight and enable significant improvement in the electrical conductivity and survivability of aircraft. Throughout the project, General Nano worked with the Air Force Research Laboratory’s Materials and Manufacturing Directorate and used additional support from the Air Force SBIR/STTR Commercialization Readiness Program to partner with The Boeing Co. This partnership helped convert the early-stage materials technology into scalable systems, which are now in various stages of evaluation for aerospace production