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.
Spoken like a true Soviet aircraft designer.
Till the giant part gets dinged by a food truck, then what? They can't just replace a panel or a bracket or whatever.
It's my understanding their fiber supplier puts some sort of outer coating on the fibers that keep them from unraveling when dinged.
Yes, but they do, delmaninate, crack and fail... And often do so catastrophically and without warning... such as that Airbus Composite Tail that snapped off in NY, killing all aboard.
Of course, and assembled in Boston.
Just don't get cadmium near it.
More composites info:
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2003049536_dreamliner09.html
Where are the granite-and-slate based planes I saw in the Flintstones?
Plutonium.
If it crashes, don't sweat the Black Box. It's vaporized, man.
They went away when the over-sized pterodactyls that carried them went extinct.
Unfortunately, up till now titanium metal has been very expensive to refine--something like 6-7 times the cost of refining aluminum metal. However, recent developments in titanium refining technology could drastically cut the cost of titanium refining, which could make it possible for airliners to use far more titanium structural parts. The switch to titanium structural parts could cut the weight of an airliner as much as 18%, since you don't need as much titanium alloy for the ssame structural strength as you need with aluminum alloy.
"Plastic" is a really poor way to describe the state of the art in material science today.
I dated a plutonium blonde once. It didn't go well.
ping
Yeah, but I bet it was some utterly explosive he....
.....never mind.
"Mulally should be talking to Burt Rutan."
They are probably running scared of Rutan.
Rutan has designed and built a commuter aircraft with a composite fuselage and high efficiency for carrying about 15-20 passengers. His idea is to enable the concept of small regional airports that run regular taxi routes which will be inexpensive and way more convenient than going to a large airport.
For trips of just a couple of hundred miles it makes alot of sense if they can get the price point down for each passenger. If the industry goes that way, toward smaller aircraft as air taxis, then the big companies like Delta and Northwestern will get a lot of competition for certain routes.
Ever hear of the "Grumman Iron Works"?
I was speaking of the "workers" not the parts!
I am sure the workers have a certain stake in the success of the Company as well or it would be another Airbust.
Wood and rocks.
More eco-friendly.
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