New lighter aluminum alloys to make a splash in aerospace
Jun. 20 2013, 2:27 PM EDT Aluminum makers fight plastic planes with new alloys Metal is staging a comeback, at least in the aerospace world, where aluminum has been challenged by newfangled carbon-composites in the industry’s perpetual war on weight. As plane makers showed off their latest carbon-plastic jetliners at the Paris Air Show this week, metal firms lobbied hard for new, lighter aluminum alloys. Aleris International, for example, is developing an aluminum-magnesium-scandium alloy that it says is 5-per-cent lighter than conventional aircraft aluminum and could be ready for later production of next-generation Airbus A320neo and Boeing 737MAX jets. Nearly 90 per cent of the 9,600 aircraft on order with Boeing and Airbus are metallic, said Ingrid Jorg, senior vice-president of Aleris, mainly because smaller jets won’t use composite fuselages for decades, if ever. “If you don’t expect single-aisle planes to turn to composites before 2030, then there’s a lot…