Posted on 07/16/2006 8:03:59 PM PDT by Paleo Conservative
Britons travelling abroad are likely to be flying in plastic planes in the future, says the chief of Boeing.
All 737 planes would be made from non-metal materials, or composites, said president Alan Mulally.
Ahead of the Farnborough Air Show, the US plane giant boss said "all future planes will be made out of composites", because it does not corrode.
Millions of tourists fly in 737 planes each year. The Farnborough Air Show begins on Monday.
Composite are formed when two or more materials with differing properties are combined.
Such materials are already used in items such as tennis rackets and bicycle spokes.
The US company's new 787 Dreamliner - which is expected to make its first flight next year - is already being constructed using carbon fibre-reinforced plastic composites.
And he said the materials would be used when the company decided to update its popular 737 planes.
Mr Mulally said composites would be used to build up to half of each aircraft and would cut building and maintenance costs.
He predicted that the technology needed to build the new 737 planes would not be ready until the middle of the next decade.
"What's absolutely key is getting our technology to a position where it's right to do this," said Mr Mulally.
Mr Mulally predicted that airlines had now recovered sufficiently from the downturn in the wake of the 11 September attacks to begin adding new planes to their fleets.
Lighter composite materials are also thought to improve range and fuel efficiency.
I remember the first composite rotor blade that Boeing was using on its entry in the contest to replace the Huey (Sikorsky won that with the Blackhawk). Back in 1975, Boeing brought a section of a composite blade down to Quantico to show at HMX-1, the Marine Presidential and R&D helo squadron. This rotor blade spar had been shot through by 7 rounds of 23 mm ammo (non-HE Soviet). The blade was then bolted to a test rig and run at 100% rpm, for two hours, I believe, and held up just fine.
A similar metal blade would have developed fatigue cracks from the stress riser caused by one bullet hole then the blade would have broken. Loss of one blade on a CH-53 helo causes the center of gravity of the rotor system to move 24". The rotor now wants to oscillate about this new CG at 3 cycles per second imparting a 30G to 50G load on the aircraft. Not a good thing! The helo appears to explode in flight from the shaking.
Composite blades are our friends!
Dahhhhh, their building the 787 with this technology.
Concrete, man. Cast, reinforced, prestressed concrete.
The airplane of the future will be made of concrete.
I guarantee it. It'll be called "das Fliegenschwein "
But the new engine technology that will be needed won't be ready till then.
I think I like "black aluminum" better than "plastic".
I have found that over the years with the sun beating down on them ,composites get brittle . Hope they have solved that.
How is American going to make its CFRP planes look silver?
The black box almost always survives the crash.
L
My only question is, with the cost of fuel through the roof, will GE dust off its old "propfan" concept it tested on an MD-80 in the late 1980s. A composite update to the Boeing 7J7 concept might be ideal for the next decade. Especially facing off against a slightly updated Airbus A320.
Or maybe PAINT? LOL
Can't we tie helium balloons together in an aerodynamic configuration? Do we have enough twine, is my main concern.
Why can't we just use balsam like the scouts do? The cheapo styrofoam planes fall apart too easily and don't even fly straight.
Mulally should be talking to Burt Rutan.
Drop the carbon, add phenolic or ceramic composites and paint it with Rustolium! :-)
"I have found that over the years with the sun beating down on them ,composites get brittle . Hope they have solved that."
Those are the older ones using polyester resin, they are all epoxy now which doesn't harden and get brittle with sunlight.
Aluminum skin and frame aircraft are going to be a thing of the past.
Where's a YS11-200 when ya need one?? :-)
Then you throw it into the garbage can once you get there. A really big garbage can.
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