Have Your Say

Regarding Boeing 787 composite material construction, you stated, “The burn through rate on composite aircraft is actually a lot less than on aluminium aircraft. Boeing have tested this and the results were quite impressive.
On further consideration, the “burn through rate”, whatever that really means, and how tests were conduced is really open to further explanation does not reassure me in the slightest. In a high impact with the ground the composite fuselage will crack and break open. This will allow flammable fuel from wing tanks to directly enter the passenger cabin. The broken edges of the composite fuselage will be the first ignition points, initiating production of toxic fumes. A metal fuselage, on the other hand, will most likely buckle severely but not expose passengers to flames for those first vital minutes of evacuation. I have personally witnessed the after-effects of fire to an aluminum fuselage. It was intact, the cabin windows had melted/burned first.
I won’t be getting on an airliner with a composite fuselage anytime soon !