J. D. Cotton, The Boeing Company, Seattle, WA

Summary: The aerospace industry has long been viewed as the recipient of the latest materials technologies, where any weight reduction is considered justification for development. But in fact, the present aerospace industry is quite risk-adverse and cost-sensitive. Improved performance, in terms of improved properties or reduced density, is only useful if the cost of the improvement is exceeded by weight or life improvements. Thus, goals for new titanium-based materials must include (in addition to improved performance): robust property suites with a low sensitivity to chemistry and process variability, simple processing requirements, affordable constituents, and low-cost approaches to shape, fabricate and machine. For large airframe components, the ability to produce single components of large dimension and heavy section thickness is helpful. Therefore, the challenge is developing and maintaining processes that result in titanium alloys that are consistent and affordable, not just strong and light. This paper will elaborate and extend this challenge to titanium researchers and suppliers.