New Materials

Brief Particulars of Recently Introduced Materials likely to have Aircraft, Missile or Space Vehicle Applications. This issue of AIRCRAFT ENGINEERING contains a detailed account of the development of Martin‐Baker ejection scats and the survival pack fitted to certain seats provides an interesting example of the applications of Velcro ‘touch and close’ fastening material. This all‐textile fastener, which was invented in Switzerland, consists of two nylon strips, one with thousands of tiny hooks (called hook‐type) and the other with thousands of tiny loops (loop‐type). When pressed together the hooks grip the loops to give a tight, secure closure, yet the two strips can easily be separated by simply peeling them apart. For the ejection seat‐pack application (shown in FIG. 1), the use of Velcro fastening facilitates the opening of the pack by a pilot who may be partly disabled or suffering from frostbite.