[Paleo Conservative]

I'd rather have titanium. Composites are not cheap, either.

They may not be cheap, but they require less labor to fabricate, and they don't require as much maintenance.

[investigateworld]

I always thought the aircraft industry missed the bet by not going with cast iron ;^)

[GSlob]

Titanium needs preciously little maintenance, does not corrode and is impervious to sunlight/UV caused degradation [this last one is a bane of most plastics except teflon].

[Veloxherc]

"They may not be cheap, but they require less labor to fabricate..."

I Build airplanes using carbon fiber composites. How I wish that were true. Carbon is very labor intensive.

[HamiltonJay]

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.

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.