From the Wood to the Composites – The Development of Structural Materials Used for Aircraft Construction to Date

Abstract

The primary requirement for the support elements of technical facilities on the ground and on water is appropriate strength. In case of aircrafts, there is an additional requirement: to minimize the structural weight (the principle of light construction), as in order to be able to lift up the aircraft one needs an engine performance proportionate to the weight of the aircraft. Consequently, in the early years of aviation history constructors used wood as building material, later on certain structural elements were built of welded steel tubes, and then fully steel constructions appeared. To another group of created metallic constructions duralumin constructions, and there are mixed-construction designs too. For the past decades we can see the rapid spread of composite materials.