Aviation Disasters,Plastic Planes Solution

I have watched many TV programmes about passenger planes crashing and
breaking up and being ingulfed in smoke and fire and many people dieing
and how the owners try to make planes safer which looked liked hopeless
inadequate attempts they were suggesting and people would still die the
way planes are still built and i was wondering why passenger planes and
the fuel tanks are not made of composite plastic?

I have experimented with plastic and found the corkscrew part of coke
bottles very strong and cheap plastic,i had the idea that just like
moulds are made to make the coke bottles,giant moulds could be made to
mass produce airplanes made of this strong plastic,if the plane crashed
it would not disintegrate or catch fire and if it crashed at sea it
would float and could be towed back to land by a ship.

http://www.scaled.com
I came across this composite plastic website who make small plastic
planes and who made the composite plastic space shuttles for Richard
Branson.

Stellios of easyjet should be interested in this idea aswell?

I have watched many TV programmes about passenger planes crashing and
breaking up and being ingulfed in smoke and fire and many people dieing
and how the owners try to make planes safer which looked liked hopeless
inadequate attempts they were suggesting and people would still die the
way planes are still built and i was wondering why passenger planes and
the fuel tanks are not made of composite plastic?

I have experimented with plastic and found the corkscrew part of coke
bottles very strong and cheap plastic,i had the idea that just like
moulds are made to make the coke bottles,giant moulds could be made to
mass produce airplanes made of this strong plastic,if the plane crashed
it would not disintegrate or catch fire and if it crashed at sea it
would float and could be towed back to land by a ship.

http://www.scaled.com
I came across this composite plastic website who make small plastic
planes and who made the composite plastic space shuttles for Richard
Branson.

Stellios of easyjet should be interested in this idea aswell?

On 6 Oct 2006 08:12:38 -0700
"Gordon" wrote:

I have watched many TV programmes about passenger planes crashing and
breaking up and being ingulfed in smoke and fire and many people
dieing
and how the owners try to make planes safer which looked liked
hopeless
inadequate attempts they were suggesting and people would still die
the
way planes are still built and i was wondering why passenger planes
and
the fuel tanks are not made of composite plastic?

Can't speak as to structural issues in respect of hulls and fuel tanks
(although degradation due to chemical reactions usually precludes fuel
tank usage), but most plastics used in aviation are causes of
mortality in crashes and in-flight fire situations due to the cyanic
compounds (?? iso-cyanates) and other substances released by combustion.
Fire-retardant treatments (i.e.for seat covers) have usage limits
(cleaning related), and often have their own chemically reactive
side-effects to human health (at present, usually recognized only in
short term effects on a small segment of the flying
public...longer-term data may be a shock).

Cheers. N.

"Gordon" wrote in message
oups.com...
I have watched many TV programmes about passenger planes crashing and
breaking up and being ingulfed in smoke and fire and many people dieing
and how the owners try to make planes safer which looked liked hopeless
inadequate attempts they were suggesting and people would still die the
way planes are still built and i was wondering why passenger planes and
the fuel tanks are not made of composite plastic?

I have experimented with plastic and found the corkscrew part of coke
bottles very strong and cheap plastic,i had the idea that just like
moulds are made to make the coke bottles,giant moulds could be made to
mass produce airplanes made of this strong plastic,if the plane crashed
it would not disintegrate or catch fire and if it crashed at sea it
would float and could be towed back to land by a ship.

http://www.scaled.com
I came across this composite plastic website who make small plastic
planes and who made the composite plastic space shuttles for Richard
Branson.

Stellios of easyjet should be interested in this idea aswell?

The plastic in the cap is strong because of its size and shape. Plastic
burns like a a bat out of hell!!

"Gordon" wrote:
I have experimented with plastic and found the corkscrew part of coke
bottles very strong and cheap plastic

It's strong *for plastic*. It's vastly weaker than any aeronautical
structural material, like aluminum, titanium, or carbon graphite.

if the plane crashed
it would not disintegrate or catch fire and if it crashed at sea it
would float and could be towed back to land by a ship.

Since plastic is weaker than structural metals, a plastic plane would
disintegrate even worse (or earlier) than a conventional aircraft during a
crash. It would also burn more vigourously and loose strength as it heated
up.

http://www.scaled.com
I came across this composite plastic website who make small plastic
planes and who made the composite plastic space shuttles for Richard
Branson.

Scaled Composites is very very good at compsite prototypes (primarily aramid
and carbon composites). Until recently, it was cost-prohibitive to use this
technology for mass production of large aircraft. Boeing's 787 and Airbus's
A350XWB will both make extensive use of composites. Don't forget though,
it's the fibers, not the plastic, that gives you most of your strength.

Tom.

A noble idea. Small composite or plastic airplanes like the Velocity and the
Glasair already exist. Raytheon Aircraft came out with the composite
'Starship' (a flop) years back. Believe me, there are engineers out there a
whole lot smarter than you or I that are working on the issue. Cheap isn't
necessarily good.
Bottom line - Airplanes are designed to fly not crash.

"Gordon" wrote in message
oups.com...
I have watched many TV programmes about passenger planes crashing and
breaking up and being ingulfed in smoke and fire and many people dieing
and how the owners try to make planes safer which looked liked hopeless
inadequate attempts they were suggesting and people would still die the
way planes are still built and i was wondering why passenger planes and
the fuel tanks are not made of composite plastic?

I have experimented with plastic and found the corkscrew part of coke
bottles very strong and cheap plastic,i had the idea that just like
moulds are made to make the coke bottles,giant moulds could be made to
mass produce airplanes made of this strong plastic,if the plane crashed
it would not disintegrate or catch fire and if it crashed at sea it
would float and could be towed back to land by a ship.

http://www.scaled.com
I came across this composite plastic website who make small plastic
planes and who made the composite plastic space shuttles for Richard
Branson.

Stellios of easyjet should be interested in this idea aswell?

Make the plane out of the same plastic that children's dolls are made from.
To quote Lister from Red Dwarf:

"Aerospace engineers discovered that, after a plane crash, the only
thing that always survives intact is a cute little doll"

"Gordon" wrote in message
ps.com...
I have watched many TV programmes about passenger planes crashing and
breaking up and being ingulfed in smoke and fire and many people dieing
and how the owners try to make planes safer which looked liked hopeless
inadequate attempts they were suggesting and people would still die the
way planes are still built and i was wondering why passenger planes and
the fuel tanks are not made of composite plastic?

I have experimented with plastic and found the corkscrew part of coke
bottles very strong and cheap plastic,i had the idea that just like
moulds are made to make the coke bottles,giant moulds could be made to
mass produce airplanes made of this strong plastic,if the plane crashed
it would not disintegrate or catch fire and if it crashed at sea it
would float and could be towed back to land by a ship.

http://www.scaled.com
I came across this composite plastic website who make small plastic
planes and who made the composite plastic space shuttles for Richard
Branson.

Stellios of easyjet should be interested in this idea aswell?


Their Space Ship One Did not Burn Up On Reentry!

Airliners shaped like Coke bottle tops? We're talking about the future
here.... Disposable transport.

Tom Sanderson wrote:
"Gordon" wrote:
I have experimented with plastic and found the corkscrew part of coke
bottles very strong and cheap plastic

It's strong *for plastic*. It's vastly weaker than any aeronautical
structural material, like aluminum, titanium, or carbon graphite.

if the plane crashed
it would not disintegrate or catch fire and if it crashed at sea it
would float and could be towed back to land by a ship.

Since plastic is weaker than structural metals, a plastic plane would
disintegrate even worse (or earlier) than a conventional aircraft during
a crash. It would also burn more vigourously and loose strength as it
heated up.

http://www.scaled.com
I came across this composite plastic website who make small plastic
planes and who made the composite plastic space shuttles for Richard
Branson.

Scaled Composites is very very good at compsite prototypes (primarily
aramid and carbon composites). Until recently, it was cost-prohibitive
to use this technology for mass production of large aircraft. Boeing's
787 and Airbus's A350XWB will both make extensive use of composites.
Don't forget though, it's the fibers, not the plastic, that gives you
most of your strength.

Tom.