Test flight into the uncharted

摘要

The a age of the composite airliner is just a few years away. But engineers are in a race against time to solve one glaring problem: how to test the new generation of materials for microscopic flaws between flights. Tested exhaustively in laboratories, composites will allow manufacturers such as Boeing and Airbus to build stronger and lighter planes. However, without the performance data from years of actual flying time to study, some concern inevitably remains. And the RAF is taking the issue seriously enough to launch its own hunt for a technology able to carry out routine tests on composite structures. Parts made from composites typically consist of strands of Kevlar, glass fibre or graphite, shaped, baked and pressure treated in an epoxy resin. They offer the strength of a metal but without the susceptibility to corrosion and are less prone to fatigue-related problems (if single fibres break there are millions of others present to take the load).