High-strength carbon fibre
Fibra de carbono de alta resistencia
- Date
- 1963 · confidence medium
- Place
- Royal Aircraft Establishment, Farnborough, United Kingdom; Osaka, Japan (Shindo, 1959)
- Credited to
- William Watt, Leslie Phillips and William Johnson (RAE, from PAN); Akio Shindo (Osaka, 1959); Roger Bacon (Union Carbide, 1958)
- People
- 👤 Akio Shindō1926–2016👤 Holly Johnson1960–👤 Leslie Phillips1924–2022👤 Roger Stuart Bacon1926–2021👤 William Watt1871–1946
- Field
- Matter & energy
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
Filaments of near-pure carbon obtained by pyrolysis of polyacrylonitrile, extremely stiff and light. Embedded in resin, they form the composites of aircraft, racing cars and wind turbine blades.
Priority is shared between Bacon (rayon-based fibres, United States), Shindo (PAN-based, Japan) and Watt (high-modulus PAN, United Kingdom).
What it led to
- Composite-fuselage aircraft (Boeing 787, Airbus A350) with lower fuel consumption
- High-performance bicycles, rackets and prostheses
- Wind turbine blades over 100 metres long
Built on
Made possible
- Boeing 787
- giant wind turbine blades
- sports prostheses