The modern commercial aviation industry would never have succeeded without aluminium.

First flight

The Wright brothers' first airplane, which flew in 1903, had a four-cylinder, 12-horsepower auto engine modified with a 30-pound aluminium block to reduce weight. Aluminium gradually replaced the wood, steel and other airplane parts in the early 1900s, and the first all-aluminium plane was built in the early 1920s.

Since then, airplanes of all kinds and sizes have been made very largely of aluminium.

Light, strong, workable

Its combination of lightness, strength and workability makes it the ideal material for mass-produced commercial aircraft. Strong aluminium alloys take the extraordinary pressures and stresses involved in high altitude flying; wafer-thin aluminium panels keep the cold out and the air in.

Many internal fittings like the seating on planes are made from aluminium to save weight and therefore fuel, reduce emissions and increase the aircraft's payload.

Aviation today

Today, there are around 5,300 commercial passenger aircraft flying in the world, and many thousands of light aircraft and helicopters. Demand for commercial aircraft is forecast to rise by around 60% over the next decade.

Aluminium is the primary aircraft material, comprising about 80 per cent of an aircraft's unladen weight. Because the metal resists corrosion, some airlines don't paint their planes, saving several hundred of kilograms in weight.

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