Voyager airplane

Composites were introduced into nonmilitary aircraft by pioneers such as Bert Rutan, whose Voyager airplane that flew nonstop around the world without refueling and his SpaceShipOne that won the X-prize built almost entirely from laminated composites. Rutan s company. Scaled Composites is known for its use of nonmetal, fiber-composite materials in the development of concept aircraft, and prototype fabrication processes. 

Airplane parts, and even whole airplanes, are now being fabricated out of lightweight advanced composites in order to save fuel. In 1986, the all-composite Voyager, shown in Figure 18.36, was the first plane to fly around the world without refueling. Many private jets are now fabricated out of composites. The general public may one day have its chance to fly in fuel-efficient, stress-resistant composite airplanes. In the meantime, we fly in passenger airplanes made of metal, which are still more economical to build. 

Burt Rutan and Jeanna Yeager, USA, designed and built the Voyager. This twdn-boomed airplane using advanced RP composites is the first to fly around the world without refueling. 

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