NEW MATERIALS USED

Evening Post, Volume CXXV, Issue 149, 27 June 1938, Page 9

NEW MATERIALS USED

FOR AEROPLANE BUILDING

Experiments are being made with plastics—composite materials—in the construction of aircraft, writes Major C. C. Turner in the "Daily Telegraph and Morning Post." There is at the Royal Aircraft Establishment, Farnborough, a complete monoplane, called the "Snark," of which the wings and body are mainly made of - a certain tough composition. In Germany, also, experiments in this direction are in progress. It is claimed that many problems of supply and cost will be solved by this method, and that the rate of production may be much expedited.

The use of plastics in combination with light alloys or woqd is, I understand, an almost certain development tin the near future. Dr. N. A. de Bruyne has for a long time been experimenting, and there is a company, Aero Research, Cambridge, which is doing important work on the scientific side.

I It was stated in Parliament that in certain new types of aircraft adopted for the R.A.F. wooden construction plays an important part. Many training types are made chiefly of woqd, and the four-engined airliner ' Albatross type is a design in wopd. Towards the end of the Great War there was a serious shortage of suitable woods, and this was one of the reasons for the adoption of metal construction at a later date. But there is no reason to fear that suitable wood in sufficient quantity would not now be forthcoming. Wood under high compression can be used, and wooden laminations of great strength and weather-proofness have been produced. New materials are seen in many aircraft accessories, one of the most remarkable being a substitute for glass, called perspex. This is already used for the domes of gun turrets, and for the glass of instruments. It is superior to ordinary glass in clearness, is nonsplinterable, and under heat is easily bent and moulded.