idlerboat 116 Posted September 5, 2012 Share Posted September 5, 2012 ...No catch here folks. Just a simple question. Is it corrosion?...Why do the top end super boats go for plastic but the top end jet liners go for (gasp...) ally ! Are they behind the times...or do they know better ?. Now we are talking super high powered aircraft here. Breaking something is not a good look. Whats the differance...and why ?... and its not dollars !!!! Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Posted September 5, 2012 Share Posted September 5, 2012 rules regulations and change. but they are slowly adapting Link to post Share on other sites
chic014 0 Posted September 5, 2012 Share Posted September 5, 2012 The FAA are extremely risk averse,so have very strict procedures for the certification of new materials. You will find in aerospace there are a few materials used widely, because of the cost and time to certify a material. The certification requirements for marine applications are a lot less stringent, so new materials are more likely to be used. Part of the reluctance to use composites arises from the fact that with composites, the material and it's shape are made at the same time, as opposed to say aluminium where the aluminium is made in a large, quality controlled factory, and then formed to shape in the aircraft factory. Because of the one-off nature of each composite part, the potential for variations in process and hence mechanical properties is high, which makes the FAA worried. Somebody should really do a PhD on this.... Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Posted September 5, 2012 Share Posted September 5, 2012 Bert Rutan has been doing composite aircraft in the US for years. Back in the 1990s I proposed to the NZ Government that the RNZAF should re-equip with his all purpose composite fighter - the point being that at that stage NZ (through it's boat building industry) was ahead of the world in composite engineering and the airframes could be built in NZ. You can imagine how far that proposal got with the RNZAF!! http://www.scaled.com/ The new Boeing 787 Dreamliner is also composite. But you are right. It takes a long time for Americans to change. The yellow school buses in the USA and Canada haven't changed much since the 1930s. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/School_bus Link to post Share on other sites
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