From Paul Lloyd
Your article on composite materials for aeroplanes made me wonder, do any of the current generation of aeronautical engineers have access to information from the de Havilland archives regarding laminate wooden aircraft construction (28 May, p 21)?
It is interesting to note that this extremely tough and lightweight method of creating complex monocoque structures can survive considerable stresses, but it was also common for such airframes to suffer catastrophic failure without any indication of a problem, when an all-metal aircraft might show telltale signs of fatigue.
I wonder if such information would not be useful in calculating the onset of failure in composite materials.
Seaton Delaval Northumberland, UK
