Going back and looking through historical aircraft designs from the ‘golden age of aviation’ can be quite an interesting journey. Some of the most beautiful aircraft to have ever taken to the skies were designed and flown from the late 1930s through the end of the 1950s. That was before aerospace composites began revolutionizing modern aerospace design. Composites brought more than just weight savings to the equation.
They also introduced a level of flexibility that allows us to do far more with our aircraft than we could even hope for 75 years ago. The golden age of aviation was a unique time to be an aircraft designer or engineer. But we have moved on. Moreover, the entire world has benefited from it.
Composite materials are known for being a lot lighter than aluminum and steel. But it is their strength, compared to the weight, that has proven so important in aerospace design. And the increased strength-to-weight ratio is what makes it possible to build passenger aviation giants like the Airbus A380.
The interesting thing about the composites and their strength-to-weight ratio is that materials can be engineered to meet specific performance requirements. When you are dealing with aluminum and steel, you’re dealing with materials that are pretty much ‘what you see is what you get’ in nature. But composites can be tailor made. That’s huge in aerospace design.
Another key advantage composites bring to the table is the ability to be molded into a variety of complex shapes. As strong as steel and aluminum are, their inherent properties limit the ability to go beyond basic shapes and forms. But composites can be molded. It is a tremendous advantage.
Composites make it possible to design aircraft with superior aerodynamics. Where necessary, military aircraft can be designed with stealth. Some of the most stealthy aircraft on the planet simply would not exist if it weren’t for composite materials.
Despite designing shapes that would be impossible with traditional materials, engineers do not have to compromise strength and stiffness. By arranging fibers with different orientations, engineers can create components capable of handling incredible stress. For instance, uniform alignment across unidirectional surfaces offers maximum strength while bidirectional fibers create material with more balanced characteristics.
Matrices are as important to aerospace composites as the chosen fibers. Once again, flexibility is a significant advantage. Matrix resins can be chosen based on their specific chemical properties in order to achieve the desired goals. One matrix may be chosen for its temperature resistance, while another is preferred for its resistance to chemicals.
Like customizing fiber alignment, matrices can be tailored to specific performance needs for just about any application. This makes them indispensable to the design and manufacture of high-performance aircraft and space vehicles.
The icing on the cake is the ability to be flexible with manufacturing processes. A traditional layup involves manually placing layers of fibers and resin in a mold to create a particular component. But manual layups are just the start.
A number of technologically advanced processes take advantage of the design flexibility composites offer. A good example is automated fiber placement (AFP), a manufacturing process that allows for the most precise control over fiber placement. The result is a superior component with limited waste production.
Composites have literally revolutionized aerospace design and manufacturing. They offer a level of flexibility that just isn’t possible with traditional materials. And thanks to that flexibility, the sky really is the limit for aircraft, space vehicles, and modern defense systems. Where would we be without composites?
