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INSIDER Materials
Shaping Aviation: Metal with Memory
Through NASA’s Convergent Aeronautics Solutions (CAS) Project, a team of engineers working within its Spanwise Adaptive Wing (SAW) project is investigating the feasibility of bending or shaping portions...
Articles Materials
Using Sintered Fiber Metal Composites for Aircraft Acoustic Attenuation
Sintered fiber metal composites are used in aircraft as an acoustic media within environmental ducting, inlet and exhaust systems. The material can be engineered to meet...
INSIDER Defense
Energized Fabrics Could Keep Soldiers Warm in Frigid Climates
Soldiering in arctic conditions is tough. Protective clothing can be heavy and cause overheating and sweating upon exertion. And hands and feet can grow numb despite wearing such...
INSIDER Materials
New Form of Carbon Is Hard as a Rock, But Elastic Like Rubber
A team of scientists has developed a form of ultra-strong, lightweight carbon that is also elastic and electrically conductive. A material with such a unique combination of...
INSIDER Defense
Navy Chemists Develop Field-Repairable Transparent Armor
Research chemists at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) have developed and patented a transparent thermoplastic elastomer armor to reduce weight, inherent in most bullet-resistant...
INSIDER Materials
Polymer Material Decreases Mass of Aircraft
Lomonosov Moscow State University engineers created unique polymer matrices for polymer composites based on novel phthalonitrile monomers. The materials can sufficiently decrease the mass of...
INSIDER Defense
Army Explores 3-D Printing's Future Applications
A soldier heads back to camp, grabs a power bar and unloads his gear. The power bar, which was "printed" minutes earlier, contains all the nutrients his body currently needs, according to...
INSIDER Materials
‘Nano-Kebab’ Fabric Breaks Down Chemical Warfare Agents
Researchers have created a fabric material containing nanoscale fibers that are capable of degrading chemical warfare agents (CWAs). Uniform coatings of metal-organic frameworks...
INSIDER Defense
Composites Self-Heal at Very Low Temperatures
Scientists developed a method of allowing materials, commonly used in aircraft, to self-heal cracks at temperatures well below freezing. A healing efficiency of more than 100% at temperatures of -60...
INSIDER Aerospace
Carbon Nanotube “Stitches” Strengthen Aircraft Composites
The newest passenger jets are made primarily from advanced composite materials such as carbon fiber reinforced plastic — extremely light, durable materials. But composite...
INSIDER Materials
Material Sniffs Out Fuel Leaks and Fuel-Based Explosives
Alkane fuel is a key ingredient in combustible material such as airplane fuel. Yet it’s difficult to detect and there are no portable scanners available that can sniff out the...
Articles Materials
Managing the Impact of Nanomaterials in Aerospace Manufacturing
As the aerospace industry continues to make improvements to safety, comfort and affordability of aircraft, nanomaterials are making their way into more elements of aircraft...
INSIDER Aerospace
Graphene Composite Could Keep Wings Ice-Free
A thin coating of graphene nanoribbons in epoxy developed at Rice University has proven effective at melting ice on a helicopter blade. The lab melted centimeter-thick ice from a static...
INSIDER Imaging
New Methods Detect and Predict Fatigue-Related Aircraft Cracks
Researchers are developing tools and technology to detect the formation of cracks in aircraft components and monitor their progression. The team is conducting comprehensive...
Articles Materials
Dry Drilling Composites Using Carbon Dioxide Cooling
The ground vehicle and aerospace industries use carbonfiber-reinforced plastic (CFRP) because it is more durable and lighter than other materials. CFRP is used in components such as aircraft...
Articles Defense
Unlocking the Power of Ceramic Matrix Composites
Faster, lighter, stronger, hotter – words anyone working on military product development is all too used to hearing. In a world where advanced computer modeling and simulation packages are...
Articles Materials
Infusing Lightweight Composite Structures
Liquid resin infusion (LRI) is a proven manufacturing technology for both small- and large-scale structures for which, in most cases, experience and limited prototype experimentation is sufficient to...
News Materials
Northrop Grumman Opens Innovation Lab
Northrop Grumman Corp. recently celebrated the grand opening of its Fabrication Laboratory (FabLab) at the company's Space Park facility in Redondo Beach, CA. The 5500-ft² laboratory was inspired and...
INSIDER Aerospace
New Computer Codes Enable Design of Greener, Leaner Aircraft
A computer model that accurately predicts how composite materials behave when damaged will make it easier to design lighter, more fuel-efficient aircraft. Innovative computer codes...
Briefs Materials
Templated Synthesis of Aluminum Nanoparticles for Stable Energetic Materials
Reactive nanoparticles as energetic materials have received much recent attention for a variety of existing and/or potential applications. Among more extensively...
Briefs Nanotechnology
Conductive Polymeric Nanocomposite Materials
AFRL scientists have developed a method for uniformly dispersing carbon nanofibers throughout polymeric materials to increase their conductivity. Engineers will be able to employ the resulting...
Briefs Materials
Composite Material Fire Safety Training Course
AFRL scientists and engineers, working cooperatively with experts from academia and the firefighting community, have developed a Composite Material Fire Safety training program designed to improve...
Briefs Materials
Monazite Deformation Twinning Research
AFRL scientists have significantly advanced the understanding of a phenomenon called deformation twinning, a major materials deformation mechanism that is particularly important at low temperatures and...
Briefs Materials
New Capability to Characterize the Mechanical Properties of Explosive Materials
Improved targeting accuracy and the long-standing desire to minimize collateral damage are causing current and future munitions to become much smaller. As munitions...
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