Today we started learning about aircraft structural materials.
Aircraft were once composed primarily of wood and fabric.
They were light, sure, but they required constant maintenance, and were susceptible to being eaten by moths and termites. What a bummer...
Then, as we learned to alloy materials to take the strength properties of some materials and blend them with the weight-saving properties of others, we began to make aircraft from steel and aluminum. It was with this generation of aircraft that humans were able to break the sound barrier and go to the moon.
Now new aircraft are mostly made of aluminum and composite; woven fiberglass with thermoplastic resin, Kevlar, glass-filled nylon, et cetera. Lighter, stronger, and faster.
This leads me to wonder what could possibly be next.
I'll just take a stab in the dark here and imagine that we will begin to emulate nature. Millions of years of evolutionary biology have given birds the wings and ease of flight we're not yet capable of. Most of the bird's airframe weight is in its internal organs, which can't be made any lighter. But their bones and feathers are essentially hollow structures. Maybe, as time goes on, we'll be able to impregnate our synthetics and composites with air (or lighter-than-air gasses) to reduce the effects of gravity.
We've pushed the aerodynamic envelope about as far as we can go.
Who knows what the next 50 years holds for structural material?
No comments:
Post a Comment