Wichita State University developed, scaled, and is now operating manufacturing development and demonstration facilities to leverage established strengths in advanced defense manufacturing and materials science. Their effort enabled the region’s small and medium sized defense companies to reduce time to market development and commercialization of defense related products and processes. Key outcomes include:

• Air Force: $23.5M contract for automated manufacturing of advanced structures and bonded joints, validating high-fidelity composite repair analysis techniques, and assesses aging composite structures for life extension and structural enhancements;
• Navy: $15.9M contract to develop, design, refine, evaluate, and transition innovative technologies for maintenance and sustainment of the Navy’s F/A-18 Hornet, which results in capability to produce a “digital twin” for all parts in every FA-18/A-D airframe in the Navy inventory – a critical achievement because these parts are no longer manufactured; and,
• Army: Army’s Combat Capabilities Development Command Aviation and Missile Center $33M contract for work focused on emerging materials for high-speed missile applications.