3. Perspectives on use

For civil aircraft, the next major step will be the introduction of composites on the fuselages of wide-body aircraft such as Airbus and Boeing. Work is underway to define the most suitable structural concepts and set up certification procedures. Initial attempts have been successful on business jets such as the smaller Raytheon Premier, which already feature fuselages entirely made of sandwich composite structures. All the technical foundations are in place to offer all-composite wings on future wide-body aircraft. While all these future applications are technically feasible, their actual realization will mainly depend on development and production costs, compared with existing metal solutions, taking into account the notion of price to be paid per kilogram gained.

For helicopters, the main structural parts are now made of composite: the blades, the fenestron (the...