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In the design highlights, it has a diagram of the materials used in each section of the plane. The pointy part at the back is the only part made of titanium in
by bodhi 17y ago
In the design highlights, it has a diagram of the materials used in each section of the plane. The pointy part at the back is the only part made of titanium in the whole plane, does anyone have any idea why that would be?
- designtofly 17y agoMy guess is that it's the exhaust for the Auxiliary Power Unit [1]. The APU is essentially a small gas turbine generator, so the exhaust temperature is approximately 1000°C. This is way above the melting temperature of composites, and even aluminum. This site [2] has a very good discussion about the Boeing 737 APU and APU exhaust (which they call an "Educator"). [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auxiliary_power_unit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auxiliary_power_unit [2] http://www.b737.org.uk/apu.htm http://www.b737.org.uk/apu.htm