The Corrosion of Metals: Recent Researches on Light Alloys and Steels, with Applications to the Construction of Seaplanes

WHEN the use of metals in the construction of the more important parts of aircraft of the heavier‐than‐air type superseded the use of timber, a large number of practical problems were encountered, as might reasonably be expected. The reasons for the popularity of metal structures are readily appreciated by those who have had experience of wooden structures. An important property in any material employed in aircraft construction is that of permanence. So far as materials employed in marine aircraft are concerned, the task of supplying alloys to give the desired degree of permanence, together with the necessary mechanical properties, is not by any means an easy one. The corrosion‐resistance, in particular, is a property vitally affecting the suitability of a particular metal or alloy for use in marine aircraft. Most industrial metals corrode—i.e., enter into chemical reactions, the result of which is in effect the conversion of some of their mass into non‐metallic matter—on exposure to a normal inland atmosphere, and as a rule the rate of corrosion is much greater in marine atmospheres or in contact with sea water.