News & Update

JOM, Apr 2005

Items of Note from the Field, Profession, and Society

Aerospace Advances Make Record-Breaking Global Flight, Look Ahead to Sub-Orbital Travel

As a lightweight, fuel-efficient plane made its record-breaking trip around the world, several companies were already launching plans for the next great aerospace ad venture: sub-orbital space flights for tourists.

Composite Materials Help Global Flyer Circle the World

On March 3, 2005, Steve Fossett became the first person to circle the globe alone in a single-engine aircraft without refueling-an aviation feat that required more than a little help from engineering and materials.

In order for the flight to succeed, designers had to make a plane that was extremely aerodynamic and fuel efficient, and able to hold more than 81 of fuel and to take maximum advantage of jet stream winds. The result was the Global Flyer, an aircraft structure built entirely of graphite/epoxy materials (Figure 1). The stiffest carbon fibers were used in the construction of the wings, according to Virgin Atlantic, which sponsored the flight, and the skin is a sandwich of graphite/epoxy and Aramid honeycomb. Two external booms hold the landing gear and more than 2.5 t of fuel are stored on either side of the pilot's less-than-roomy cockpit, which is little more than 2 m long. The aircraft has a wing span of 35 m, houses 13 fuel tanks, and is powered by a single Williams turbofan jet engine.

The plane, designed and built by Scaled Composites, an aerospace and specialty composites development company based in Mojave, California, met its aerodynamic goals. In fact, according to Virgin Atlantic, the plane was so aerodynamically perfect that the only practical way to descend was by using drag parachutes.

Fossett successfully landed the plan on March 3, 2005 in Salina, Kansas, despite losing 1.2 t of fuel early in the flight. While this caused concern with both Fossett and his land-based crew, the plane finished its flight with 687 kg of fuel remaining. As a result of losing the fuel at the beginning of the flight, the plane was lighter and required less fuel as the flight went on.

Commercial Space Planes Offer Passengers a Trip into (Sub) Orbit

In a different kind of aerial adventure, passengers are already beginning to line up for trips into sub-orbital space. Though the first trips are not scheduled to begin until 2006 or 2007, passengers are already making reservations for their chance to become astronauts. For a price, of course.

In November 2004. JOM reported plans for privately funded space flights from U.K.-based Virgin Group, which had licensed the technology to build a fleet of suborbital spaceships. (see "SpaceShipOne, the Ansari X Prize, and the Materials of the Civilian Space Race" by Maureen Byko, November 2004 JOM.)

But Virgin is not the only company with plans for space travel. In 2001, the Virginia-based company Space Adventures launched the first private citizen into space-as part of a mission to the International Space Station-for a price tag of $20 million. Now, Space Adventures has accepted more than 1OO reservations for commercial sub-orbital space flights expected to begin in 2006 or 2007. The price tag for these trips: $102,000.

Oklahoma-based Rocketplane Limited has also announced sub-orbital flight plans to begin in 2007 and is accepting reservations for these flights. The company's commercial space plane is a four-seat, fighter-sized vehicle powered by two jet engines and a rocket engine. Designed to take off and land like a traditional commercial airliner, Rocketplane passengers will begin and end their space flights from runways in Oklahoma. A typical trip from Rocketplane Limited will cost $99,500, according to Oklahoma's The Journal Record.

SpaceShipOne Finds Home in National Air and Space Museum

For its role in advancing the possibility of private space travel, SpaceShipOne, the first privately built and operated vehicle to reach space, will take up permanent residence at the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum in Washington D.C. The spacecraft won the $10 million Ansari X-Prize in 2004 for flying at altitudes in excess of 100 km twice in the span of 14 days. Later this summer, the plane will be delivered to the museum, where it will hang in the central Milestones of Flight gallery between Charles Lindbergh's Spirit of St. Louis and Chuck Yeager's Bell X-1.

Market for Electronic Waste to Exceed $11 Billion by 2009

The global market for electronic waste is expected to rise at an average annual rate of 8.8% over the next five years, from $7.2 billion in 2004 to an estimated $ 11 billion in 2009, according to a soon-tobe-released report from Business Communications Company (BCC).

The fastest revenue growth will be seen in the recycled plastics sector, which is expected to grow at an average of 10.2% per year in response to increased demand for high-value engineered plastics. Growth in metals recovered from endof-life electronic waste will continue to outpace the broader recycled metals market, growing at an annual rate of 8.1%, while the market for recycled glass continues to be stagnant, with low value attached to recycled glass. see Table I for global sales forecasts in various sectors of the electronic waste market.