So far, the research centres upon improving the comfort characteristics of large planes used for long flights, although the Fiberglas in fabric form has been tried experimentally as covering for the wings of a light plane. This. too, is a yet unfinished chapter of research.
Introduced unobtrusively into the larger planes two years ago, Fiberglas is essentially the same product that saw earlier use in homes and industry as insulation. It was padded into the inner surface of fuselages on planes of Pan American and Eastern Airlines. It served es heat and sound proofing on the first transatlantic clipper, and the Navy adopted it for use on many of its larger planes.
With the discovery that insulating material of the organic and hollow-vegetable-fibre type absorbed moisture, increasing the weight of the largest land planes by as much as 100 lb. and of clipper planes by more than 300 lb., Fiberglas found a welcome from more and more plate makers. One hundred or more pounds of deadweight carried on every flight means potential loss of thousands of pay-load dollars to an airline in the course of a year. The incombustible woolly glass material takes on almost no moisture; being as impervious as gloss itself, the individual fibers do not "absorb" moisture. The "absorption" of dampness. meaning moisture" clinging to the surface, was found to be 1/10 of 1 per cent at 90 per cent. humidity.
In weight and in noise reducing properties, Fiberglas claims exceptional qualities from the aeronautical standpoint. It weighs one and a half pounds per cubic foot, one-half less than the weight of other insulating materials that have been used in planes In heavily powered planes this product is reported to reduce noise level more than 20 per cent.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.