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Airbus Unveils Carbon Fiber Plane

by Evan Shamoon on June 30, 2008 at 12:40 PM




You know that weird, checkered material you see used in cars, bikes, and sporting gear? It's called carbon fiber, and it's super light. Now, Airbus has rolled out its newest plane, made mostly of the material. The result, though still not quite friendly-skies-friendly, could become the way forward for an airline industry suffering from high oil prices and extensive financial problems.

"Making wings out of carbon fiber cuts the fuel consumption by at least 20%," said Dave Phipps, head of Airbus' carbon fiber research department at Filton, UK. "It's a revolutionary technology. It is so much lighter, and yet just as strong and just as safe."

The tech has been in the works for over two decades – mainly for safety concerns. "Dealing with lightning strikes is much harder," says Professor Philip Lawrence, aviation expert at the University of the West of England. "Every time you cut a hole to fit electronics the structure of the wing is affected and joins between metal and carbon fiber can be tricky."

Which leads us to our closing and rather delicious pun: If the technology takes off, it could be lightning in a bottle for the airline biz. [Source: BBC]

Tags: airbus, airplanes, carbon fiber, CarbonFiber, future tech, FutureTech, travel

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