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Aircraft Engineering TH E MONTHLY ORGAN OF THE AERONAUTICAL ENGINEERING PROFESSION VOL XXV No 287 JANUARY 1953 ferrous and non-ferrous, to these very different materials; particularly in view of M R GORDON'S historical introduction surveying the reasons X TT T E are printing in full MR J. E. GORDON'S Plastics Institute for the change-over a century and a half ago from wood to metal. \/\/Annua l Lecture because it seems to us to be directed as T T much to the aeronautical engineer as to the worker in The Historical Background plastics—and in some ways even more. We therefore are bringing For ourselves, we believe that the chief impetus has come from a it specifically to the notice of aircraft designers in these columns. continually developing shortage of metals which has now become a world matter. Historically, we believe, the urge to develop what A Definition were then universally known as synthetic materials-dates back to It may be as well, before going further, to attempt to make clear the Nazis' fear of being cut off from supplies of metals on the out by definition precisely what we mean by 'plastics' materials. These break of the war for which they were even then preparing in-1933 or are not necessarily—or even frequently—in their finished state 1934. This led them to encourage their chemists to examine the 'plastic' in the ordinary sense of that word; i.e. capable of flow under possibilities of artificially producing ersatz substances which resulted load without rupture. They are, however, plastic at some stage in in the development of resinous glues for joining timber and, later, their manufacture and it is this fact which imparts their characteristics impregnating it so as, firstly, to provide a possible substitute for from the production point of view. Plastics are, in the normal usage metals and further to make possible the use of inferior quality wood of the term, nearly all synthetic materials—and it is in this sense when supplies of high-grade timber ceased to be available. We write that we use the word. very much subject to correction, but we believe that this originally Owing to rapid developments in the range of plastics materials German activity was the mainspring of the subsequent widespread becoming available, and a steadily increasing knowledge of the development of plastics materials that we now see. It should, on the technique of using them, there is an ever-growing interest in their other hand, be said that in the course of their evolution plastics have possibilities. Though, however, this is true of industry in general we developed special properties different from those of other materials are not sure whether the aircraft industry in particular has yet taken which have given them a status in their own right. up the subject as actively as it might do. The materials in some forms are, of course, in regular use for components such as cockpit A Wide Range covers, radomes and for various small items such as are mentioned One aspect that we think has to some extent hampered develop in our new feature this month, 'New Materials for Aircraft'. ment by causing some confusion in the minds of. those engineers who were not specializing in the subject is the wide range of materials Limited Activities that have gradually become available with very different properties, Hitherto the wider application of these synthetic substances for which has led to some uncertainty and even bewilderment. Another the actual structural parts of an aeroplane has been, so far as this stumbling block in the development of structural materials has been country is concerned, mainly confined to the research work carried the eager adoption by industry of moulded plastics for such purposes out at the Royal Aircraft Establishment by MR GORDON and his as domestic radio cabinets which has caused work to proceed largely colleagues on the familiar half delta-wing exhibited at the S.B.A.C. on the production of these—for experiment with which there have, Display two years ago and the experimental Spitfire fuselage con as it happens, for various reasons been funds available—to the structed during the War. exclusion of what are perhaps aeronautically more important matters. News from Overseas Difference in Outlook Ancillary to these activities is a reference in a recent article in Aero Digest by M R T. E. PIPER of Northrop Aircraft Incorporated One of the more specialized plastics materials which has hopeful to the fact that 'British airframe manufacturers have fabricated a set prospects for the aircraft world appears to be the impregnated of glass-plastic wings which will be (light tested in about six months'. glass-fibre laminate on which we have published several articles. The This is, so far as we are aware, the first reference to this fact—if fact outstanding property of this, which is the subject of the article by it be—that has so far appeared in print and it is a typical sign of the M R PIPER to which we have referred, is its exceptional heat-resisting times in which we live that this news of a British development qualities which are likely to become extremely important as really should, like so much of the information about our activities, come high speeds well above the sonic level become possible. M R GORDON back to us from the other side of the Atlantic. points out that the materials' chief disadvantage from the airframe structural point of view is their low elasticity, but M R PIPER, perhaps Before going into this particular application of a special form of strangely, refers to this greater flexibility as a property of which the plastic it is perhaps interesting to consider what are the reasons for designer can often make favourable use. thoughts turning from the more familiar and well-tried metals,
Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology – Emerald Publishing
Published: Jan 1, 1953
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