Skip to main content

Tracing Aluminium back to the Golden Age of Aviation

It might baffle you but about 80% of a modern aircraft is made from Aluminium. Yes, the same silvery metal which you find on your window frames, bicycles and that foil you wrap your sandwich with. When an aircraft designer embarks on a plan to make a plane, there are a million things which come at play. However, everything else falls into place around three main conditions – a light-weight body, a rust-free durable frame, and high fuel efficiency. A metal that checks all the boxes is Aluminium.

Modern Passenger Aircraft
Our readers might already know that aluminium was already being used for building aviation vehicles before the Wright brothers used it to make their first manned flight. In the late 19th century, Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin used it to make the frames of his famous Zeppelin airships.

Let’s wind back a bit in history and follow the journey of aviation through the lens of the 'Strategic Metal'.

On December 17, 1903, Orville and Wilbur Wright made the world’s first human flight with their airplane, the Wright Flyer, four miles south of Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. The “heavier than air” aircraft was carefully designed to sustain a flight of 120 feet (37 m) in 12 seconds, at a speed of only 6.8 miles per hour (10.9 km/h) over the ground. They had carefully selected aluminium to cast the engine block and the cylinders combined with the wooden framework, an innovation at that time to maintain the weight as low as possible. Interestingly, the engine had no fuel pump. Gasoline was fed from the fuel tank which was mounted on a wing support into a chamber. It was here that the fuel got mixed with the air, vaporized and then forced into the cylinders to deliver power. The small leap that the plane took into air lit the imagination of millions who saw the historic photograph of a man flying like a bird!

Man's First Flight 
Aluminium was still not much into popular use back then due to the lack of the industrial expertise of manufacturing it on a large scale. It would take over a decade for the use of aluminum to become more widespread.

World War 1 brought in much scope for innovative usage of different metals, pioneered on an industrial scale. Aluminium usage increased in the making of aircraft and aerospace vehicles because of its unmatched weight reducing characteristic by as much as 3 times than iron and steel while offering non-corrosive and “thrice as stronger than steel” proposition at the time. Incidentally, it blew away wood from any further usage in the industry, which was a good thing.

The world’s first full metal aircraft to have lifted itself above the ground was made in 1915 by a German aircraft designer Hugo Junkers. His plane initiated the use of strong alloys consisting of aluminium, copper, manganese, and magnesium. The time was right to get an edge over the other nations through air supremacy in the war. This gave birth to the era of globally superior aviation.

Junker's Aircraft of WW I
The period between World War I and World War II (1918 - 1939) famously came to be known as the ‘Golden Age of Aviation’. The race between the East and the West to make superior aircraft led to ground-breaking research and manufacturing capabilities on both sides of the ocean. The biplanes were discarded for aerodynamically superior monoplanes which were created from all-metal frames made from aluminium alloys. Various nations like Britain, Germany and the US had formidable bomber planes capable of overturning the fate of battles and eventually the war.

World War II saw soaring demand for aluminium in military applications. It was so great that in 1942, WOR-NYC broadcast a radio show ‘Aluminum for Defense’ to inspire American civilians to contribute scrap aluminium towards the war efforts. Recycling aluminium was encouraged, and “Tinfoil Drives” offered free movie tickets in exchange for aluminum foil balls!

A "Tin foil drive" during World War II
It is said that at its peak (circa 1944), Americans were making around 11 aircrafts per hour, mostly from aluminium. By the end of the World War, America had the most dominant air force in the world.

Look out for our next article where we fly into modern uses of aluminium in today's aircrafts!

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Most read articles

Aluminium in guitars – It's all music to our ears

Think of a guitar and the classic wooden version comes to mind. There are hundreds of types and they come in all shapes and sizes. Some passionate players even go for custom made guitars just to suit their movements and taste. The simple guitar is still evolving with newer uses of the instruments in concerts and other forms of music. The use of wood in the body and the neck of a guitar is not going to cease in a long time. However, the use of other selected materials by modern guitar manufacturers has significantly improved the sound quality and handling of the guitars. “Manufacturers were making custom guitars from solid billeted aluminum. I was still in graduate school and couldn’t afford such instruments. So I decided to make a competitively priced guitar. Instead of wood or plastic, I opted to use 0.080-in. aircraft-grade aluminum sheet metal because of its quality and durability,” says the then-future CEO of Normandy Guitars. Aluminium Guitar The use of Alumin
82 comments
Read more

Aluminium extrusions - The ultimate value addition of Aluminium downstream

From simple paper clips to complex pieces used in advanced technology, aluminium extrusions are created in various shapes and sizes for value added end use utilizations. The computer you are using right now contains at least one aluminium profile in the form of a heat sink. This takes advantage of aluminium’s excellent thermal conductivity, unique anodising capability and freedom of design to keep your computer’s processor cool. Different cross sections of extrusions Extrusion is a process used to create objects of a fixed cross-sectional profile. A special tool called a ‘die’ is used to create these extrusions by cutting or shaping the material with the help of a press. These dies are customized to create the wanted design. The process involves the pressing of a pre-heated solid cylinder of aluminium (billet) which is forced through the die opening. The billets are heated to a temperature range of 350 – 500 degrees Celsius. Aluminium does not glow when heated ye
35 comments
Read more

The choice is clear - Aluminium body for high end smartphones

A lot of phone companies are trying to build slim and sturdy phones for the ever growing market of steroid enhanced hardware capabilities. With phone manufacturers stuffing more RAM and precision cameras in the modern phones, the weight and robustness of the frames becomes all the more important. Today, some manufactures prefer a fiber body to reduce the overall weight in comparison to metal bodies. However, there’s something which still draws a larger advocacy of using aluminium bodies instead of a plastic or fiber. In 2007, Apple CEO Steve Jobs penned an open letter highlighting changes to the company's environmental policy in hopes of achieving "a greener Apple." In the letter, Jobs specifically noted the Mac maker's adoption of aircraft-grade aluminum in order to improve recycling uptake. Apart from the cost reduction implications, Apple is strongly in favor of aluminium usage in all its products for improving its year on year recycling capabilities with
19 comments
Read more

Humble Aluminium cans or sculpted masterpieces?

Have you ever spared a thought about what happens to the humble aluminium can after its purpose is done? Do we hear you say “they’re recycled and reused!?” Well, of course, you’re correct. But in its afterlife, some aluminium cans get converted into beautiful sculptures and serve a higher purpose. Behold these beautiful Aluminium masterpieces created by the Detroit-born artist Noah Deledda! Courtesy: 1 Fuzz Courtesy: My Modern Met Courtesy: WOSU Courtesy: The Inspiration   The interesting fact about these creative and exquisite pieces of sculptures is – Noah creates them with his bare fingers! "Through sculpture, I try to create something unique out of an ordinary object," says Noah, “My goal, and reason for ever making art is to raise awareness of the importance of the creative process. This drives me to create work that challenges perception and inspires curiosity.” To begin with, he removes the outer paint / commercial sticker
3 comments
Read more

Lamborghini's raging Super SUV URUS - a balance of power and weight

This is unlike any Lamborghini automobile ever! An SUV from the company who produces supercars made from the blood of raging bulls? Of course, they are calling it the world’s first Super Sports Utility Vehicle – a fact we can’t deny given the super specs on the automobile and Lamborghini’s signature design. Will this animal from Lamborghini’s bullpen deliver on the brand’s promise? Let’s find out! From the outside, the vehicle sports the signature of Lamborghini’s extreme design yet finds a way to make it less aggressive for the owners who just want to buy milk on a cold Monday morning from the nearest market. However, on the inside, it’s still a beast. The front hood houses the 4 litre V8 twin-turbo engine with 650 HP and 850 Nm of torque. Acceleration from 0-100 km/h is achieved in just 3.6 seconds and the top speed is a staggering 305 km/h! Braking is no less impressive: the Urus decelerates from 100 km/h to 0 in 33.7 meters. The vehicle is 4-wheel steering with carbon-c
2 comments
Read more