XPost: alt.aviation.safety, rec.aviation.misc, rec.travel.air 
 XPost: alt.disasters.aviation 
 From: me@here.com 
  
 Airliners shaped like Coke bottle tops?  We're talking about the future 
 here....  Disposable transport. 
  
 Tom Sanderson wrote: 
 > "Gordon"  wrote: 
 >> I have experimented with plastic and found the corkscrew part of coke 
 >> bottles very strong and cheap plastic 
 > 
 > It's strong *for plastic*.  It's vastly weaker than any aeronautical 
 > structural material, like aluminum, titanium, or carbon graphite. 
 > 
 >> if the plane crashed 
 >> it would not disintegrate or catch fire and if it crashed at sea it 
 >> would float and could be towed back to land by a ship. 
 > 
 > Since plastic is weaker than structural metals, a plastic plane would 
 > disintegrate even worse (or earlier) than a conventional aircraft during 
 > a crash.  It would also burn more vigourously and loose strength as it 
 > heated up. 
 > 
 >> http://www.scaled.com 
 >> I came across this composite plastic website who make small plastic 
 >> planes and who made the composite plastic space shuttles for Richard 
 >> Branson. 
 > 
 > Scaled Composites is very very good at compsite prototypes (primarily 
 > aramid and carbon composites).  Until recently, it was cost-prohibitive 
 > to use this technology for mass production of large aircraft.  Boeing's 
 > 787 and Airbus's A350XWB will both make extensive use of composites. 
 > Don't forget though, it's the fibers, not the plastic, that gives you 
 > most of your strength. 
 > 
 > Tom. 
  
 --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05 
  * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)