Boeing has claimed that it successfully developed the world's lightest metal, HNGN previously reported. The announcement was made in October but the company revealed that the new technology was perfected as early as 2011 in collaboration with a company called HRL Laboratories.
The company now intends to use it for their next generation aircrafts, as well as rocket ships that it plans to build within five years.
Boeing calls the new metal "microlattice," which is lighter than a styrofoam. "Microlattice is the lightest metal ever made. At 99.99 percent air, it's light enough to balance on top of a dandelion, while its structure makes it strong," Boeing said on its website. "Strength and record-breaking lightness make it a potential metal for future airplanes and vehicles."
The team of researchers behind the microlattice technology took inspiration from human bones, which have open cellular structures. This means each is tough on the outside but hollow on the inside, according to a Forbes report. This composition makes it difficult for bones to get crushed. For microlattice, researchers used a 3-D open cellular polymer structure that mimicked this structure. As a result, they were able to create a metal that weighs one-tenth as much as carbon fiber and is technically lighter than air, according to CNN.
Watch it in the video below:
As an aircraft material, microlattice will reduce the aircraft's weight in the process, contributing to better fuel efficiency. Boeing will also possibly use microlattice in the space rocket it is currently building, which will succeed the old Atlas V rocket. It is being developed with Lockheed Martin Space Systems in a partnership called the United Launch Alliance.
