Composites Use in Aerospace

Since the 1950s*, composites have been growing in use in commercial and defense aircraft, ranging from struts and tail components, to wing skins and fuselages, to engine components and propeller blades.

One of the largest challenges to adoption of composites by the aerospace industry is stringent standards especially for safety critical structures, necessitating time- and labor-intensive processes to qualify new materials for use on passenger aircraft.

Qualified and well-tested autoclave-cured carbon fiber and thermoset-based prepregs are most often used for many structures, though other materials and formats, including thermoplastic tapes, are also in development or use.

Source: The FAA: Keeping up with aerocomposites evolution

*In the 1950s, Boeing began using fiberglass in its 707 passenger jets, and at the time the material made up about 2% of the overall aircraft by weight. Since then, Boeing, Airbus and other aircraft manufacturers have continued to increase this percentage with successive aircraft models. Today’s twin-aisle commercial aircraft such as the Boeing 787, first launched in 2009, and the Airbus A350 comprise approximately 50% composites by weight, largely carbon fiber-reinforced polymer (CFRP).

At the time the Apollo capsule, which landed on the moon in 1969, was built by NASA, composites industry was still in its infancy and the materials were not yet in widespread use, though the Apollo capsule used early composite technology in the form of an ablative heat shield made from Avcoat, an epoxy novolac resin with silica fibers in a fiberglass-phenolic honeycomb matrix. A fiberglass honeycomb was bonded to the primary structure and the paste-like material was injected into each cell individually.

Since Apollo, advanced composites have evolved by leaps and bounds, and have played a significant role in space programs with use in launch vehicles, the space shuttle, satellites, space telescopes and the International Space Station.

Source: Composites in the race to space