Material Matters

Abstract

IN this issue we publish an article by DR P. B. WALKER under the title ‘Plastic Pressure Cabins’, in which he examines the possibility of using reinforced plastics as the primary material for pressurized fuselages. This study was suggested by a leading article in our issue for February this year. We are very gratified that DR WALKER felt the suggestion was of sufficient interest to be looked into, and that he should have made such a thorough study of the question. We are not at all disconcerted by the conclusion that this particular application for reinforced plastics is less promising than we had thought it might be. We considered that there was a case to answer: DR WALKER agreed, and has provided the answer. In doing so he has been careful not to condemn reinforced plastics in general as an aircraft material, but onlly to say that the special problems of fuselage structural design are not of such a kind as to be easily solved by these materials.

Citation

(1956), "Material Matters", Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology, Vol. 28 No. 9, pp. 289-289. https://doi.org/10.1108/eb032731