[steve86]

Plastic burns much better than Aluminum or Titanium.

And a much tougher repair. Even before the repair, much more difficult to inspect internally.

In wartime a bad aluminum section like that on say a B-17 could have been patched overnight.

[Paladin2]

I love my "plastic" (well, composite wood, metal, graphite, foam, air, cardboard (Hexel) etc.) skis.

On an airplane to travel to ski country? Not so much.

[Paladin2]

"much more difficult to inspect internally. "

Back in the day, we had an x-ray facility at McClellan AFB where we could x-ray an entire wing for defect detection.

Today the composite tails of older Airbuses could be problematic (American Airlines Flight 587).