Engineers have discovered a way to make an ultra-strong stretchy metal that could enable the creation of shape-shifting aircraft. The new metal is an alloy made up of titanium and nickel. It’s as strong as steel, but it stretches like rubber polymer.
The new material isn’t just metal-like. It’s also very similar to glass, the engineers explain. It was created using a three-step process that allows for the alloy to be both elastic and strong, even at a large range of temperatures. The process starts by deforming the sample and then elongating it by around 50 percent, engineers explain in a paper.
From there, the material is briefly heated to 300 degrees Celsius (572 degrees Fahrenheit) and elongated once more. However, the second time, it is only elongated by around 12 percent. At the end of the process, the ultra-strong stretchy metal can withstand pressures over 18,000 times more than regular atmospheric pressure. This strength is comparable to common steel, and it can even maintain those properties within a range of temperatures from -80 degrees to 80 degrees Celsius.
A material like this could be used for an array of different purposes, including the aforementioned shape-shifting aircraft, which could supposedly change the shape of its wings as needed to gain more speed or slow itself down.
Other possible uses could include shape-shifting robots, which some scientists and engineers have tried to make in the past. Whether or not the metal will be useful anytime soon, though, is another question altogether. For now, the engineers say that a ton of engineering questions will need to be addressed before it can really become a reality.
You can read more about the ultra-strong stretchy metal in the journal Nature.
