The History of Aircraft Materials

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The History of Aircraft Materials
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The History of Aircraft Materials

• Questions to answer in this module
• What is the brief history of the materials used
  to construct aircraft?
• Why were these materials adopted?
• Why did some materials replace others?
• What is the future for materials in aircraft?

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1843 - Rubber

• Charles Goodyear Vulcanization
• Tires
• Seals and gaskets

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1903 - First flight - Wright Brothers

• Aluminum engine block
• Spruce steel wire structure
• Fabric skin

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1903 - Wright Brothers

• Why wood and wire structure?
• Why fabric skin?

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1903 Aluminum Engine Block

• Most internal combustion engines of the time were
  of cast iron construction

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1907 Plastic

• Leo Hendrik Baekeland refines plastic
  production to create bakelite

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1915 All Metal Airplane

• Hugo Junkers
• Steel tubing
• Sheet iron skin

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1916 - Stressed Skin Construction

• LFG Roland C.II

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Stressed-Skin Construction

• Why stressed-skin?
• Skeleton-like space frame
• construction used for
• non-stressed skin aircraft.

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1926 - Semi-Monocoque Construction

• Ford Tri-motor

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Semi-Monocoque Construction

• Cutaway view
• semi-monocoque
• construction

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1930s Increased Aluminum Use

• Duralumin and Alclad

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1931 - Stainless Steel Construction

• Budd BB-1 Pioneer

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Steel/ Stainless Steel vs. Aluminum
So why not build all aircraft out of stainless
steel? Corrosion resistance Weight Cost Buckling
failure
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1936 - Plastics Use Expands

• Plexiglas

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1942 - Composites- Fiberglass

• Cockpit components for war effort

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1940s 1950s Superalloys

• Before World War II iron based alloys were
  developed for high temperture work.
• The war increased demand of performance materials
  for turbochargers and jets.

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1950-1963 - Titanium

• The A-12 precursor to the SR-71

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1969 - Carbon Fiber Composites

• Rolls-Royce RB211 jet turbofan engine

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1970 Boron Fiber Composites

• F-14 Tomcat

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1981 - Ceramics

• Space Shuttle Thermal Protection Tiles

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1998 - Aluminum-Lithium

• Space Shuttle external fuel tank

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2005- GLARE

• GLAss-Reinforced Fiber Metal Laminate (FML)

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2009 Boeing 787 Dreamliner

• Large scale composite use

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Future- Intelligent Materials

• Inbedded sensors and monitoring systems
• Materials change properties and configurations

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Future- Nanotechnology

• Ultra-strength Composites
• Locally tailored materials for
• specific requirements

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Summary

• What is the brief history of the materials used
  to construct aircraft?
• Why were these materials adopted?
• What is the future for materials in aircraft?