‘The first fifty years of composite materials in aircraft construction’

Abstract

The title of this article may surprise those who look upon composites as a recent innovation. The first major step was taken in 1940 when Dr Norman de Bruyne's Aero Research Ltd of Duxford, now part of the Ciba-Geigy Group, built a Spitfire fuselage in Aerolite, a material developed by them comprising flax thread skeined and impregnated with a phenolic resin and formed in a heated press. The project arose as a safeguard against a possible war-time shortage of aluminium alloys. Tests at RAE proved entirely satisfactory whilst the weight was the same as the metal version, see Figs 1-3.In 1947 Turner Brothers developed a chrysotile asbestos fibre reinforced phenolic resin called Durestos. The wings of the experimental Fairey Delta E10/47 were built from it and were the first primary composite structures to be flown.Since those days immense strides have been made in the use of advanced composites, most modern civil and military aircraft taking advantage of their unique properties.