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No, GLARE is lighter than aluminum and that it is was used on A380 and I take 20% lighter than CFRP with several large grains of salt and still has same CTE problems as GLARE.

GLARE already has CTE problem, this material (same developers) is no different and why no GLARE on A-350 ever??

Re Ruscoe's point re 787 nose, the Caravelle nose was purchased from De Havilland from Comet aircraft, in fact, as I recall, Caravelle purchased first three or six noses for Caravelle direct from DH. So the 787 has a Comet design nose. A small historical footnote only, but seems to have come full ci...

Dear Chris and Beaucaire, Thank you both for yours, they are much appreciated as ever. And Chris, I agree with many of your sentiments, but I worry re design release pressures and very tight schedules re the new technologies in commercial realm. The Military usually have a lots more flexibility and ...

Had internal note today that GLARE is not working on A-380 as expected, so I am feeling somewhat vindicated at this point re CTE problems of GLARE and other issues as predicted and discussed. Next, I predict will be Boeing 787 center wing box mixed AL and CF issues and fuselage FST issues for Boeing...

Dear Chris, Thank you for your and your teacher's response re CTE problem in GLARE and it is now time for me to surface with my thoughts. I beg to differ from conclusions as, to my mind, they are somewhat misleading or, at best, debatable. If alumunum is placed in high tension via CTE, as is now agr...

Agreed, smokejumper, I was going to post re no AL-Li usage on A-330, but you beat me to it, thank you. Cracking and other issues were what my 1980's study found as mentioned. Exfoliation is another issue. In summary, I still oppose it usage on any commercial aircraft, but I am just an engineer.

Very tragic and sad news, our thoughts and prayers are with all families involved.

Dear Chris, Well, it was a thought re dissertation and your kind words are greatly appreciated. Maybe we can get your teacher to investigate and be a hero too. And, yes, re Al-Li was always a French industry producer push, but I think very wise if EADS don't use it based upon my earlier study result...

Thank you , Chris , for excellent and objective set of responses and glass is definately in 3.0 to 3.5 range, so GLARE CTE claimed doesn't compute or glass and aluminum are involved in a big fight just as physics predict. Good luck on finding more detailed answers re GLARE and all thanks for your ma...

Chris, thank you for sagacious and thoughtful response and I like glass fibre as was involved heavily in Corvette leaf spring FEA work a few eons back. Nevertheless, one must be careful re glass and in particular, composite/ metallic hybrids as I will seek to illustrate. My experience regarding hybr...

Thank you for the kind words, Beaucaire, they are much appreciated. In this area both Boeing and Airbus have similar problems re ground impact, sorry Chris, but it is true. My feelings are that both aircraft are susceptable to ground damage and results of ground truck hit would be similar in either ...

Chris, Thank you for yours. In terms of voids, you need these as low as practical as stated earlier, otherwise you have design allowables problems as well as moisture ingress issues. For a decent and acceptable composite you need a final cohesive structure per spec without large number of voids or d...

Voids of less than 1% are the desired goal in hand laid up parts. However, depends upon manufacturing method, with filament wound parts having 3% or more voids. I suspect (no knowledge) with tape laying (a la Boeing tape laying) that 1.0- 2.0% is accepted level. If higher than that you run into fati...

Yes, for B-787, the entire fuselage is CF/epoxy, which raises lots of issues, including lightning strike, impact during ground handling, undetected damage, maintenance, QA, et al, but same issues exist for all CF/epoxy center wing box of A-380, although I agree re fire burn through, Airbus in fusela...

While the certification agencies ponder and ponder re FST and haven't even set a fire standard for exterior structural composites yet to my knowledge, may I suggest a easy, quick and probably effective test, albeit a mite costly. Just land an instumented for interior FST A-380 and a B-787 wheels up ...

Dear Avro, Thank you for welcome and your comments. Re Glare it would appear that A-380 fuselage is in better shape than B-787 with all cf/epoxy, but that ignores that A-380 all cf/epoxy huge center wing box, so I think that overall, both Boeing and Airbus are on a par, a low par, I note re FST issu...

Thank you for posting the FAA report TN05-44, Bits44, and for those interested in this vital safety issue, as also mentioned by achace (thank you for saying I am unbiased, as I hope that I am), I would cite a couple of salient sentences from the Introduction section of the report kindly posted by Bi...

It is a known fact that CF/epoxy structures are particularly poor performers regarding FST (Fire, Smoke and Toxicity). That is why glass/epoxy interiors were all replaced with glass/phenolics under NASA direction and efforts back in 1970's, in which I participated. The B-787 all CF/epoxy fuselage an...