Development of fibre metal laminates for advanced aerospace structures

Fibre metal laminates offer significant improvements over current available materials for aircraft structures. While weight reduction and improved dam age tolerance characteristics were the prime drivers to develop these new f amily of materials, it turns out that they have additional benefits which b ecome more and more important for today's designers, e.g, cost reduction an d improved safety. The combination of these aspects in one material is an e xtraordinary achievement. It shows that GLARE is a unique material for airc raft applications. Moreover, it makes clear that, through its unique combin ation of properties, GLARE is a strong candidate material for fuselage skin structures of the new generation of aircraft. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science S. A. All rights reserved.