Science: Flying Fibers

Britain’s airplane designers are hot on the trail of something new: plastic airplanes. Last week the Board of Trade was talking up an all-plastic wing of triangular “delta” shape, which was developed by the Ministry of Supply and will be exhibited in May at the British Industries Fair. The wing is black, shiny, and made mostly of felted asbestos fibers impregnated with a synthetic resin. Preliminary tests indicate that the material will stand the heat developed by the high speeds for which delta wings are designed. Tests of strength are encouraging too.

The wing is made by a simple low-pressure molding process much like a method used in the U.S. to make plastic boats. The heat to set the resin must be controlled precisely, so 99 sensitive thermocouples are buried in the mold. To avoid running separate wires to each thermocouple, they are all connected to a small telephone exchange inside the mold. When the man in charge of the curing wants to know how hot a certain part is, he uses an ordinary telephone dial to “call up” the proper thermocouple and ask it to report.

The Board of Trade proudly calls the wing “a pioneer step toward all-plastic aircraft, which promises to be easier to build than present-day metal aircraft, and from 50% to 80% cheaper.” The Fairey Aviation Co., one of Britain’s leading aircraft manufacturers, expects to have a plastic delta wing—presumably a fighter —in the air within two years.