metallic glass thermal protection for hypersonic aircraft

first ill provide the first patient

link

with the ability to make metallic glass and I'm sure some pretty exotic metallic glass's it would be crazy to think they aren't using this metallic glass as a skin or coating for hypersonic aircraft

you would be able to turn the skins of the aircraft into a sensor or many sensory placed inside the wing and with now wiring for power as they can carry a charge and with creative patterns of various types to just bolt on certain sensors or other stuff.


it also has a HIGH melting point and that is paper thing metallic glass, imagine a 1/4 inch covering of this stuff.

you could cool it with the fuel and send it to the engine injectors


and at the very least will create a new sensor windows that are super strong, IR light can pass materials that are opaque to our eyes like a germanium lens.



ETA: they are making the wings and other surfaces moveable with the help of this new type of glass

We all know it was given to us from the future!!!

a reply to: noscopebacon

There's something like that. I read a while ago that there is a fighter jet that has glass covered / infused with thin rolled gold, so thin like a few atom layers, the pilots can look through the gold layer. Popular mechanics probably.

I've worked with gold sheets and saw how they are made, by hammering them between paper until they get really thin. For gold plating and confectioning sweets with a gold touch. But I never been able to look through one, just imagine how flimsy that sheet has to be to look through it. They are so thin, you can't feel them between your fingers and need tweezers anyways to handle, even if they are too "thick" to look through.

a reply to: ThatDamnDuckAgain

metallic glass made in bulk easily is a new thing and is a new form of metal.


and i would bet you dollars to doughnuts that you could put some interesting elements in it to have a plasma sheath around it by the bata and alpha particles coming from some of these transuranic elements they could include in this glass

a reply to: Kurokage

hello computer....hello computer

doc:use the mouse

Chief: how quaint

sadly there are none that i can fine that are transparent to our eyes but are clear to IR.

so you could have a canopy covered in this stuff helping with RCS and with the new helmets and thermal vision you would have a cool looking aircraft

a reply to: ThatDamnDuckAgain

also gold can get down to single 'flat' sheets of atoms all connected but that can only be done in a lab

a reply to: ThatDamnDuckAgain

You wouldn't use gold foil for gold plating. Normally they use electroplating where gold ions are dissolved into an acid, or ion implantation where gold ions are vaporized. Both methods use the flow of electrons to attract gold ions to your substrate material.

a reply to: noscopebacon

I read that the X-59 has two 4K cameras to view forward and no canopy glass! The pilots see through the cameras to hi def monitors.

Metallic glass is super cool stuff! But IIRC they had an issue with being brittle. But since it is cutting edge stuff (and almost hush-hush) I can’t say where they stand now.

Cool, curious tech!!

a reply to: TEOTWAWKIAIFF

well if you think about it normal glass thin enough to roll up would be super fragile as well

i think the break through was the fact they can make it cheaper faster and thinner than what we have seen in the past

and we have only seen silicon glass if they can make alloyed glasses we might see some interesting effects and abelites to add to the skin of the aircraft.

the whole thing could be a sensor of sorts, like a HUGE antenna

a reply to: joejack1949

Plating might be the wrong technical term.

When you use gold foil you use gold glue to cover something like a church clock pointer in gold. You brush these little thin sheets of gold onto the parts. In confectioning sweets, you plate chocolate with it or try to sculp something 3D.

Cover? Covering might be the better term.



You can eat these with zero concern about the gold.

originally posted by: ThatDamnDuckAgain
a reply to: joejack1949

Cover? Covering might be the better term.

I believe the word you're looking for is "gilding."

a reply to: joejack1949
We call it "vergolden", sorry English is not the language I grew up with. "Gilding", is it describing the gold process only or that sort of covering in general?

Problem is airframes twist,buckle,bend and have to be flexible due to aerodynamic and temperature differences.

a reply to: joejack1949


i was more refering to the fact that we have moved beyond single layer carbon sheets, and now we can do it with gold.



electro plating does not make an atomically flat sheet of gold.


also gold is VERY useful, or at least i can see it becoming part of the canopy or the visor in the helmets to protect piolets eyes from laser weapons

our astronauts use gold in a very very thing layer so the sun doesnt blind and cook them when they are in direct sunlight outside the station.



its about the fact we are now moving across the table of elements in creating '2-d' plains of thing from polonium to gold to germanium etc.

originally posted by: Kurokage
We all know it was given to us from the future!!!

Aluminum oxynitride ceramics have been around since the 1980s, so it’s not new stuff by any means. Coincidentally, AlON development was underway more or less at the same time that Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home was being produced; it was from the now-classic scene from that film where Scotty attempts to trade the formula for “transparent aluminum” for sheets of plexiglass that AlON and similar transparent ceramics get the name “transparent aluminum”.

The reality is it's not aluminum or glass for that matter it is simply made from aluminum. Aside from being optically clear, ALON is also very strong. Tests show that a laminated pane of ALON 1.6″ thick can stop a 50 caliber rifle round, something even 4″ of traditional “bullet-proof” glass can’t do. Problem is that it's expensive to make so you may only see it used in very few instances for example space x was considering it for viewing ports.

a reply to: Blackfinger

if you can make you high speed aircraft a true wave rider it could hit the gas to make the skip out in space longer where no air friction would hurt the frame when in a normal air stream


there are also boundary layer systems that can keep the hot hypersonic air off the skin of the craft, but as far as i know the last time they tested it, it was going well until the wing was eaten by the hypersonic heat/air.

there are also other electrical systems that can create a bow shock Infront of the aircraft and keep it in a bubble of sorts.

adding all this together would make a fast and durable/reusable aircraft.

a reply to: dragonridr

Alo2 is also Safire