Posted on 01/12/2005 9:12:35 AM PST by ConservativeStatement
SEATTLE -- Boeing Co. doesn't often let the public into its secured development center here. But on Tuesday, after months of bad news about defense scandals, trade wars and lost sales, the Chicago-based company finally had something to crow about. While the television cameras rolled, Boeing engineers unveiled a seamless, rivetless, one-piece barrel of carbon-fiber composite that has the unmistakable profile of a jumbo jet's back end. At 22 feet long and 19 feet in diameter, it is a crucial first step in a multibillion-dollar march to prove that the company can build its much anticipated 7E7 Dreamliner, the first passenger jet produced largely from the same kind of reinforced plastic used to make golf club shafts.
(Excerpt) Read more at chicagotribune.com ...
Well there's a plane I won't be getting on.
Maybe they can make it out of transparent aluminum. Just ask some guy named Scotty........
Stronger than steel.
Why not? Composite materials have no inherent problems. If the plane is properly designed, it should be even safer than current aircraft.
That was invented waaaay back in 1984 by some chemical engineer.
That's not the problem. Fastening and joining is the problem.
In a golf club, simply glueing the head on can be adequate. In an airplane there are all kinds of irritating parts that need to be stuck on - engines, APUs, etc. And glue joints are pretty tricky on parts that size.
On the ground.
So how are they going to join all the parts, with super glue?
Seriously, composites are good enough for jet fighters, good enough to be heat shields for all of our astronauts to date, and good enough for cars. . .but not for you ??
It is stonger and more duable then steel. I can't wait.
They already use it on a smaller scale in avaition. The technology to spin the fibers into large scale seamless shapes already exists.
In the air too!
They have been gkuing joint in airlines for over ten years, it is in many applications cheaper, easier, and stronger then ribbits.
The heat is not an issue. Composites designed for heat can take more heat than aluminum can.
Super Glue. Great stuff.
I was at an event some years ago where Burt Rutan spoke...he said something like....no matter how much you look at nature....no matter how small or how big...you never find a single fastner.
He also offered that, if aircraft had initially been designed and built from composites, you would never be able to get aluminum qualified as a material, today. It fatigues, it crystalizes and cracks, it has bad plastic deformation characteristics....the list of negatives goes on and on.
"So how are they going to join all the parts, with super glue? "
Depends on the part, I'd guess. They'll use whatever fasteners or adhesives are appropriate for the situation. You do know that there are lots of composite planes flying around, right? Just not on this scale.
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