Aircraft that ushered in a new era of materials technology. What do you think?

i'm sure there lots of candidates... think of xb-70. 1st flew in 1965 there. there! precursor concorde, in concept if nothing else. @ higher speeds center of lift moves aft ('aft' aircraft/nautical term used here make sound know talking about) , maintain control, wings fold down move lift forward again. @ distance plane looked banana pulling orange crate. remember, fuselage bent level again, forward of wings, more pronounced on concorde. uncle worked on plane , had invent new techniques of skin bonding, , new honeycomb/aluminum sandwich skin material. has been used in many high performance planes since then.

or maybe choice should 1 of burt rutan's composite planes. construction technique 'taking off' these days. , in home building, oriented strand (osb?) boards engineered composite. strength needed in given direction, metal must extruded, forged, cold-worked or whatever, composites have off-the-shelf material (cloth) has different , specific engineered properties. 1 chooses strand type, diameter, weave, orientation , binder achieve whatever strength necessary.

my mate , having discusion other day materials used in aircraft, aircraft marked important breakthrough in aircraft materials development. argued sr-71. plane guys reckon was/is important in short history of aviation?

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