AGM & Aviation22 Sep 2019 18:47
Unfortunately I can’t get to the AGM as I’m no win Berlin for a few days. Any reports from the day would be greatly appreciated. Of course, graphene is never far away and whilst browsing the BA business life magazine, September issue, on the plane out there was an article on the next 100 years of flight and part way through a page or so on graphene!
“While many of the technologies being mooted in aviation’s future have digital DNA, the tech that will enable air travel to make the leap into the 22nd century will depend not just on ones and zeros but also on a mastery of new materials – ones to cope with the sizzling heat generated by travelling at Mach 5+ and to protect passengers from the deep freeze of outer space. And ones that are lightweight to save fuel and recyclable at the end of the aircraft’s service life, to conserve resources.
The past 100 years have demonstrated that the deployment of successive generations of more capable materials is key to advancing the operational performance of aircraft…. And if you’re wondering how BA’s 787 can fly 14 hours non-stop it’s because aviation is now in the Carbon Composite Age. Composites in the 787 shave 20% off its weight compared to its metal predecessor. But, in the next 100 years of flight, it’s looking as if we’ll be in the age of 2D materials, with graphene leading the way….
‘We’re working with the aerospace sector, looking at how graphene and other 2D materials might be incorporated.’ Says James Baker, CEO of Graphene@Manchester...’near term there are many opportunities, such as adding graphene into rubber to make the aircraft’s tyres last longer. Over the next 5-10 years we’ll use graphene in passenger seating and in the aircraft’s non-structural elements. Adding graphene into manufacturing processes reduces cure time, which lowers costs and improves productivity…. If we can add graphene to carbon fibre instead of using 7 layers of carbon fibre for a wing we can maybe do it with 4, reducing weight, cost, improving aircraft range and fuel efficiency.’
‘Looking further forward, things get really exciting when, as well as making wings lightweight, we can stop them absorbing water when they fly through clouds, making the aircraft more efficient because it isn’t carrying the water that’s absorbed by conventional composites. Beyond that, things get more revolutionary. By exploiting graphene’s thermal management properties, instead of having a heavy, expensive de-icing system, we can channel heat from the engine through the graphene enhanced wings to de-ice them in flight.’
Even further into the next 100 years timeline, though Baker says it’s too early to say when this will happen, he sees graphene being used for the aircraft’s lightning strike protection and says that a graphene wing could, conceptually, be used for electricity storage and potentially act as a supercapacitor enabling aircraft to deploy a burst of energy when required, during take-off and climb.
Hope people find that int
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