A Historical Perspective of Aeronautical Airframe Applications...

Tech Paper #EM03-274 Composite materials have been applied to aeronautical airframe structures for the past 40 years in areas of increasing structural complexity. Composite materials are advantageous in these applications because of corrosion resistance, improved fatigue performance and resistance to impact damage. Compared to metal structures, composite materials are stronger, stiffer and lighter, and offer the potential for being more cost effective by reducing the number of parts and assembly operations. As the technology has matured, composite materials evolved from fighters to larger military aircraft and then to commercial aircraft. This presentation covers the range of applications of composite materials from these early days to the latest sophisticated manufacturing processes used for extremely complex composite primary structures for large commercial aircraft. Authors: Cecil W. Schneider (CEC Technologies, P.C., Marietta, GA), James C. Leslie (ACPT, Inc., Huntington Beach, CA).