Aerospace industry relies heavily on composite materials whether its an aircraft or spacecraft, every designer desires to have a material with high strength to weight ratio. Composite materials are those hybrid materials which are developed by the composition of more than one material to get the desired properties. Today we find a lot of variety in composite materials, like basic composites, fiber reinforced composites etc. Fiber reinforced composites are widely used in aerospace industry, for their ability to bare tensile load, particularly in designing the skin of the aircraft. Composites are non magnetic materials and so they don't interface with the magnetic compass of the aircraft and this makes them the ideal material in designing the panels and other cockpit parts.
I have looked upon the properties of spider silk fiber and I must say that to me it seems the material of future technology. I myself have done project on this material by replacing the conventional material used in the fuselage side Windows with the new composite material made of spider silk and epoxy. With this new material The transparency has increased, weight has been reduced and strength and lifetime of the window has increased. I have also calculated an aggregate of 50% loss in the weight per window.
Spider silk is the only natural fiber which is used to trap insects this shows how easily this fiber bares the impact load. The secret to this ability of the fiber is its elasticity which allows it to get elongated to 500% of its original length thus absorbing the energy. The deflection in the structure of the model was reduced with this new material. This is the material of future.
