I got this today from my ARFF listserve. Neat idea. Any guesses how many years before we see this in passenger air service?
February 13, 2001 - New Technologies May Hold Key To Safer Flights
Nitinol And Swept Fan Blades May Lead The Way
UNITED STATES - New materials and designs in the aircraft industry are
looking to create safer airplanes that might be more able to avoid disasters
like the one the Air France Concorde encountered.
Investigators in the Concorde crash say that a small piece of metallic debris
on the runway may have exploded one of the plane's tires and led to a
catastrophic fire.
Nitinol, a metallic alloy that is known as memory metal, may provide
solutions where runway debris is a concern.
Developers of the material say Nitinol would be more capable of dealing with
strikes from runway debris than conventional aircraft metals. When Nitinol is
struck by an object at a high velocity the metal simply flexes and then it
‘remembers’ its original shape and returns to it.
Nitinol is already being used in golf clubs, surgical instruments and some
helicopters.
Nitinol was developed by Memry Corp., of Brookfield, Conn. In 1996, Memry
signed a contract with the aircraft manufacturer McDonnell Douglas. Memry
went to work creating a control surface helicopter blade that provides pilots
with increased control as well as increased structural endurance.
Memry also landed a contract with NASA. That space agency explored the merits
of memory metals in the 1960s but gave up on their efforts until the 1980s,
when the agency began early work the space station.
Materials aren’t the only variable to consider when creating safer aircrafts,
designs play a critical role in that equation as well.
Swept fan blades in jet engines may not only add greater power and fuel
efficiency, but according to Aerospace Engineering Online, the swept fan
blade design also provides added strength for resistance to runway debris.
As always the constraint holding back any new technology is a two-headed
monster – time and money. New airplanes are expensive to build and new
technologies are often expensive to implement. So, don’t expect to see any of
these developments on your next flight, but you may want to keep an eye out
for them down the runway.
