Future Aluminium Technologies and Their Application to Aircraft Structures
Abstract
Aluminium remains a predominant material for airframes. Carbon fibre composites and titanium alloys have made inroads especially in some military airframes such as Typhoon and Tornado. However with affordability now having equal emphasis to the classical performance requirements in aircraft design, such as speed, range, payload and stealth, aluminium could soon recover some of these applications. Aerospace manufacturers are giving significant attention to developments in the areas of new aluminium materials, low cost manufacturing and unified structures. The latter is because the cost of producing aircraft is being driven by the cost of assembly which drives production towards fewer, cheaper-to- assemble parts, whilst maintaining close tolerance in manufacture.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Apr 01, 2000
- Accession Number
- ADP010411
Entities
People
- J. B. Borradaile