Dwayne Brown

Headquarters, Washington, DC September 22, 1997

(Phone: 202/358-1726)

Keith Henry
Langley Research Center, Hampton, VA
(Phone: 757/864-6120)

RELEASE: 97-210

PANEL SELECTS NASA-DEVELOPED

HIGH-PERFORMANCE AIRCRAFT MATERIAL FOR AWARD

A panel studying new technologies has chosen a NASA-

developed, high-performance composite material as one of the 100
most technologically significant new products and processes of
1997.

Scientists at NASA's Langley Research Center, Hampton, VA,

developed the material, a high-temperature resin called PETI-5.
The composite was recently selected for use in a U.S. supersonic
civil airliner expected to be built early in the next century.

A 75-member panel that studied new technologies on behalf of

Research and Development magazine honored the material's
development as part of the magazine's annual R&D 100 Awards world-
wide competition. PETI-5 is short for PhenylEthynyl Terminated
Imide and is the fifth formulation developed. An awards banquet
and exhibits program will be held Sept. 25 at Chicago's Museum of
Science and Industry, after which winning entries will be on
public display.

"The PETI technology has already been transferred to industry

with licensing agreements to four different companies. This
demonstrates the significant advance in technology which has been
accomplished," said Greg Manuel, technology transfer agent at
Langley. The four companies are Culver City Composites, Culver
City, CA; Cytec Engineered Materials, Havre de Grace, MD;
Fiberite, Greenville, TX; and Imitec, Schenectady, NY. The
agreements position each of the companies to support advanced
composites for a future supersonic civil airliner.

Because of the material characteristics of PETI-5, it is the

only material that meets the needs for future high-speed civil
transports. This is the only market that licensees are looking at
presently. Other markets may become viable as the quantity of
material produced increases and the cost of the material
decreases.

NASA and industry have teamed to develop the technology

necessary to build an economically viable supersonic civil
transport plane that will fly at 2.4 times the speed of sound, and
carry approximately 300 passengers at a ticket price only 20
percent over comparable subsonic flights. This plane would halve
the flight times from California to Japan.

Since currently available metals are either too heavy or

cannot withstand the high temperatures created when flying this
fast, composite materials made from graphite fibers and PETI-5 are
necessary to both withstand the high temperatures and to make the
plane strong enough and light enough to be economically viable.

The market potential of an adhesive or composite matrix resin

for a fleet of supersonic civil transports could be several
billions of dollars. There is also a significant market for non-
aerospace applications which require the exceptional combination
of properties provided by PETI-5, such as high performance
automobile engine applications.

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