AIRCRAFT MATERIALS INTRODUCTION AND MECHNICAL PROPERTIES

  we will look at what materials aircraft  are made of.

The materials of aircraft  will be largely divided into metal materials, non-metal materials, and composite materials.  we will first look at the metal materials of aircraft materials!

The Variety of hardware and materials used in aircraft maintenance engineering is vast, and this module will only deal with a broad group of materials, their main characteristics, identification and uses. These materials can be classed into the three main types of Ferrous Metals, Non-Ferrous Metals and Non-Metallic materials. 

Composites of many of these materials will be found, in use, in the aerospace industry. 

 The usefulness of any materials may be enhanced as a result of the addition of other materials that make difference the basic characteristics to suit the specific requirements of the aircraft designer.  

A metal’s usefulness is governed principally by the physical properties it possesses. Those properties depend upon the composition of the metal, which can be changed considerably by alloying it with other metals and by heat-treatment. The strength and hardness of steel,for example, can be strengthen by increasing its carbon content, adding alloying metals such as Nickel and Tungsten, or by heating the steel until red-hot and then cooling it rapidly 

Apart from the basic requirement of more and more toughness from metals, other, less obvious characteristics can also be added or improved upon, when such features as permanent magnetism, corrosion resistance and high-strength whilst operating at elevated temperatures, are desired. 

Composites make up a huge part of the construction of modern aircraft. In the early days, composites and plastics were bounded to non-structural, internal cosmetic panels, small fairings and other minor parts. Today there are many big aircraft, which have major structural and load-carrying parts manufactured from composites. Composite materials, in addition to maintaining or increasing component life strength, contribute to the important factor of weight saving. There are also  modern light aircraft's that are almost totally manufactured from composites and contain little metal at all.