FLASH-POINT BLOG ARCHIVE: Aug 2004

Finally, we feel like we are getting somewhere, made numerous prototypes today, each time eliminating a few more operations and ensuring we had excellent component position. The new material specs are on the money, it performed very well and the molding quality is superb. After years of thinking and then months on and off testing and prototyping and hundreds of rims later, I feel like today was a real turning point!

With this worldwide shortage of carbon fiber we have been struggling like mad to get prototype batches of raw material made according to our specs in an effort to make the product the way we want to. The rumor is that with the Airbus 380 doubledecker and the Boeing Dreamliner, a great deal of the raw carbon in the world is committed and has made life pretty tough on everyone else. This includes all the recreational users like us. Regradless of the lengthy wait we got our new stuff this week and will have a go in the next few days. The technohead in all of us really love the fact that carbon has found its way into commercial aviation applications in such a large way and the technology used in their manufacturing is really fascinating. The downside is of course a little selfishness as now we cant get what we want very quickly. The last thing you want to be told by a supplier is that it will take 12 weeks to make your next batch of experimental material but that is the reality of todays composite world. Will be interesting to see how this develops over time!