Originally Posted by
underfire
I thought it was titanium due to the weight of the copper? I know they could use aluminum, but would have to thicken the composite for galvanic protection..
Again, no first hand knowledge, but I was 'told' the 787 used copper mesh - never even heard of them wanting to use titanium. It's all about the electrical conductivity - adding copper to the composite matrix makes it more conductive - which due to electrical laws that I'd need to refer you to a text book to explain, the induced current due to an external current is a function of the electrical resistance - the lower the resistance, the lower the induced current. Hence if they'd used aluminum they would have needed so much more to get the same conductivity that I doubt it would have saved any weight as copper is much more conductive (i.e. lower resistance) than aluminum. I believe titanium is even worse than aluminum.