As the US Congress demanded that cockpit doors be strengthened to protect against terrorist threat, manufacturers and suppliers immediately started looking at design possibilities. Prominent among the bullet-resistant materials tested by suppliers and airplane manufacturers were the para-aramid Kevlar, the high-modulus polyethylenes Spectra and Dyneema, and high-strength S-2 glass. C&D is using Dyneema to retrofit not only the 737s and 757s, but some McDonnell Douglas models. For the wide-body 747, 767 and 777 planes, Boeing is using DuPont's Kevlar. Major Boeing competitor Airbus is using S-2 glass fiber made by Aiken. Several hundred McDonnell Douglas models are being outfitted with doors using Honeywell International's Spectra fiber and SpectraShield technology. The specialty fibers in these new doors 'actually catch the bullet'. AGY's S-2 glass fiber is woven, prepregged with phenolic resin, then sold to laminators. High modulus polyethylene protection is made of unidirectional fibers bonded together with resin rather than woven. This way Spectra fiber is dissipating energy. Pressed into bullet-resistant panels, Dyneema weighs 0.8 pounds per square foot, and Spectra weighs 0.9 lbs. Kevlar weighs slightly more. High modulus polyethylene costs more per pound than aramid of glass fiber.


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    Title :

    Fibers compete in war to bulletproof cockpit doors against terrorist attack


    Additional title:

    Fasern konkurrieren um die Ausrüstung von kugelsicheren Pilotenkanzeltüren im Kampf gegen Angriffe von Terroristen


    Contributors:
    Miller, H. (author)

    Published in:

    Publication date :

    2003


    Size :

    5 Seiten, 2 Bilder



    Type of media :

    Article (Journal)


    Type of material :

    Print


    Language :

    English




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