Composites Research on the Rise

In the 70's, 80's, and into the 90's, there was a lot of research money spent on composite materials. It started with polymeric composites but in the 90's, much of this went to metal-matrix and ceramic matrix composites. Much of this research was funded by the US, European, and Japanese governments and was directed towards aerospace applications of composites. By the end of the 90's, much of the advanced materials government research funding went towards nanomaterials with the private sector taking on the composite materials research effort. This led to the Boeing 787 and Airbus A350 which have over 50% of their structure made from advanced composite materials. In the last few years, a resurgence of interest in traditional composite materials has led to several government supported research initiatives and consortiums in this area. Much of this interest is in the fields of non-aerospace composites which dominated the research funding in the 70's, 80's, and 90's. A review of some of the higher profile initiatives and consortiums is outlined here.