So far not demonstrated on any fighter or trainer program.
For UAVs I'm not sure, perhaps
@Quwa or
@Oscar may be able to answer that better.
Carbon fiber has existed in use within manufacturing for nearly two decades now but it’s not some panacea for fighter manufacturing as is assumed. Great for UAVs, light and generally strong but UAVs aren’t taking fighter stresses. Those require stronger composites and more importantly manufacturing techniques for those composites. PAC has this capability now but it’s limited to smaller sections.
I've said this elsewhere as well but it is worth repeating, adding to Oscar's point.
Bala denter making CF parts in his mamu's workshop and Boeing making structural CF parts for the 787 are quite different grades of CF composites, as you'd imagine. Unfortunately, we in Pakistan are closer to the Bala denter than to Boeing (based on what I've heard from AWC and seen at PAC).
Disclaimer: I am not a composites person - just someone who know some things and has seen some things.
For aerospace grade structural composites you need:
1. The material - fibres and expoxies. We are often banned from getting the most high tech of these but that hasn't stopped us before lol. You should really be manufacturing these things locally because many CF fibers are ITAR.
2. Fibre laying machines must be used, which must be designed/imported - I haven't seen these anywhere. Hand layup isn't very precise or repeatable.
3. Very very careful design is needed for the parts themselves, with a deep understanding of fatigue. I guess this can be learned and is nonphysical so I can't say if this is present with us or not.
4. Very large and very accurate autoclaves are needed to properly cure composite parts. We have these and one is being installed at PAC that's pretty big.
5. Very large clean rooms that are connected to the autoclaves are also needed. PAC went ahead and made a clean room too small for the autoclave that they got, I don't know why lol.
6. Very carefully designed jigs must be used that maintain precise temperatures when being brought back from autoclave temperatures - this is important for proper curing.
7. Testing: I don't know much but I'm sure nondestructive and destructive testing specific to CF parts must be done.
The important thing is repeatability and quality of CF parts. The parts that we manufacture look pretty good but they have poor tolerances and poor repeatability of structural properties from one copy to another. This requires over design and heavy parts. These sorts of things are alright for UAVs but not for actual aircraft.
Composite manufacture requires a lot of investment and I don't believe Pakistan has the stomach for that kind of investment (or the need frankly).
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