How much is 25 lbs. of fuel savings worth to you? How much is it worth to Boeing?

  • partial_accumen@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    It looks like this material is being used for interior cosmetic components, not load/stress bearing structures:

    While the sidewall panel project is awaiting additional unique tooling and funding, Boeing is exploring recycled carbon fiber for additional cabin components, such as sandwich panels, which Wynhof said are used all over the cabin in nonloadbearing structures that don’t need to have the same sound-dampening requirements as sidewall panels, such as lavatory and galley walls, partitions, monuments and bins. She said the company hopes to test them in the “very near future.”

    So things like the interior plastic “wall” you can touch when you’re sitting in the window seat. It sounds like a good use for this material if it is otherwise scrap, and has better characteristics than the virgin materials they’re using today for these parts.