COMPOSITES IN THE AEROSPACE INDUSTRY

Even though metals are extensively used to build aerospace structures, groundbreaking advances in science and technology enabled the development of many new composite materials that are pushing the boundaries of performance. The extraordinary growth in the use of advanced composites (especially fiber reinforced plastics) is justified by their impressive features and properties, such as amazing strength-to-weight and stiffness-to-weight ratios, high static strength, good fatigue/damage resistance, excellent dimensional stability under a wide range of temperatures, and many others. As you can imagine, in aerospace projects, the utilization of these materials lead to lower fuel consumption (and thus, reduces the emission of greenhouse gases), improves the lifetime of the structures, reduces the maintenance costs, can provide better electromagnetic shielding, and improved corrosion resistance, to name a few.
Nowadays, there is little doubt that the widespread adoption of composite materials has completely changed the aerospace industry. In many sectors, composites already are the leading materials. Let’s take Boeing as an example! The company started using fiber reinforced plastics when developing the 707. This project had only 2 percent of its structure made of fiberglass! After the 707, each generation of new aircraft manufactured by Boeing had an increased percentage of composite material usage. The Boeing 787 Dreamliner was the first major commercial airplane to have a composite fuselage, composite wings, and use composites in most other airframe components. This aircraft is 80% composite by volume! By weight, the material contents are 50% composite, 20% aluminum, 15% titanium, 10% steel, and 5% is made of other materials. Each Boeing 787 Dreamliner is made with 23 tons of carbon fiber, which is used to manufacture approximately 32 tons of carbon fiber reinforced composites parts!

History shows that NASA is also a great example of research and development of composites. The agency has been using composite materials since their inception, during the ‘60s, when composite materials helped astronauts to reach the moon! At the time, NASA built Apollo 11’s heat shield from a mixture of epoxy resin and silica fibers in a fiberglass-phenolic honeycomb matrix. Fast forward a couple of decades, and the Mars missions were another milestone for the composites. The Perseverance Rover, for example, had critical parts made of composite materials and high-performance fibers. Its aeroshell (the heat shield that protected it during the descent) was made using carbon fiber cyanate ester prepreg. Other prepreg materials were also used to manufacture structural portions of the rover. The parachute’s suspension cords and parachute riser also incorporated high-performance aramid fibers.