Stereo Lithography machines of BAE Systems are helping churn out high-end components for both Formula 1 and the UAV project.

BAE Systems’ Unmanned Air Vehicle (UAV) programme relies heavily on the flexibility, speed and efficiency of rapid engineering and rapid prototyping.

With the French Grand Prix (July 1) on the horizon, BAE Systems has good reason to cheer the early season success of the Vodafone McLaren Mercedes Formula 1 Team while in Paris – it is celebrating 11 years of partnership with Britain’s top motor racing team and taking lessons from the track straight onto the runway.

Reigning double World Champion Fernando Alonso and his British teammate Lewis Hamilton continue to dominate the early stages of the Drivers' World Championship, and the Vodafone McLaren Mercedes team leads the World Championship Constructor’s title.

Behind the scenes BAE Systems continues to swap skill sets with the Woking-based Formula 1 operation as the worlds of competitive motorsport and aerospace move ever closer.

Vodafone McLaren Mercedes’ success has been hallmarked by its ability to dramatically evolve its Formula 1 cars in engineering terms from Grand Prix to Grand Prix, keeping the competition on the back foot and its drivers at the front of the Grid. And now some of the lessons learned in terms of rapid engineering at Vodafone McLaren Mercedes are being passed onto the aerospace sector where design engineers are adding them to their own skills in this field to produce flying demonstrator aircraft in months instead of years.

And at BAE Systems’ Military Air Solutions headquarters at Warton in Lancashire, assessment components for UAV’s and Vodafone McLaren Mercedes Formula 1 cars are now coming out of machines called Stereo Lithography UV Lasers simultaneously.

“We are now making around 250 models for the Vodafone McLaren Mercedes Formula 1 Team each year,” says Gavin Southern, Team Leader for Rapid Prototyping at Warton.

“The nature of the machinery we use means often UAV and Formula 1 components are coming out side by side so we can optimise the production process.”

Vodafone McLaren Mercedes send Gavin and his team 3D CAD data on a regular basis.

Once it arrives the Stereo Lithography machines are loaded with the data and then build up precision components layer by layer in incredible detail out of epoxy resin. The components are then assessed by the McLaren Racing design engineers and three or four iterations of the design may be tried before the perfect result is achieved.

“Such flexibility in the past would have been unheard of,” says Gavin.

“You would be talking months of design and engineering work to produce a single component and then you might have to start the process over again. Today we can simply input revised data and ‘grow’ a new component in the resin vat which can quickly be assessed before the final design is selected.”
 
Everything from wing tips to gearbox casings has been produced in component form by the BAE Systems team at Warton for Vodafone McLaren Mercedes – and at Woking, at the McLaren Technology Centre, BAE Systems aerodynamists are constantly on hand to ensure wind-tunnel testing produces the best possible results.

“We simply use the same skills we deploy to keep an aircraft in the air and apply them to keeping an Formula 1 car on the ground,” says Gavin.

“We enjoy an excellent relationship with Vodafone McLaren Mercedes and it is one that has brought rewards on both sides.”

BAE Systems is a global defence and aerospace company delivering a full range of products and services for air, land and naval forces, as well as advanced electronics, information technology solutions and customer support services. With 88,000 employees worldwide, BAE Systems' sales exceeded £13.7 billion pounds sterling (US25.4 billion dollars) in 2006.