Light aluminum vs. strong steel in plane airframes

Published 10:43 am Wednesday, March 2, 2016

The wings and fuselage of an aircraft are built to be quite light. Everything part and piece of a plane you pull into the skies will limit performance. However, warplanes have to stand up to lots of punishment and hard use including tough, bouncy landings. Peeking into the inner workings of the FHC’s Bf 109 E-3, one can see the burliest parts of this entire aircraft. In the place where the main wing spar, fuselage, engine firewall, and landing gear meet is a very husky forging. Is it aluminum or steel? Aluminum would be lighter but steel is certainly tougher. We got out the magnet. The thick, complex forging is made from (incredibly strong and fairly inexpensive) steel.