Word: magnesium
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...sensational advance in industrial technique was revealed last week and immediately opened the way for major advances in the aviation industry. The new technique: arc-welding of magnesium. Result: the further development of the so-called flying wing-a weird, batlike plane with no tail, no fuselage and an extraordinary efficiency (TIME, Oct. 27). Some other results...
...Magnesium-one-third lighter than aluminum-can now become a primary aeronautical material, rivaling aluminum and competing with stainless steel (TIME, June 22), instead of remaining a secondary metal used only in engine parts, wheels, accessories...
...Magnesium arc-welding-and perhaps the flying wing-will remain monopolies of the U.S. and its allies. Reason: arc-welding magnesium requires helium, which is found in useful quantities only...
Until last week, arc-welding magnesium was almost as impossible as welding paper, and for the same reason: this most inflammable metal* would ignite from the heat of the welder's electric arc just as it does in magnesium incendiary bombs. But after two years of research, engineers of Northrop Aircraft Inc. discovered that magnesium can safely be arc-welded if the hot metal is blanketed with helium to exclude atmospheric oxygen. The helium also cools the molten metal, acts as a metal-cleaning flux...
...advantage of welded magnesium on the wing surfaces of planes is that it can be used in thicker sheets than steel and aluminum. This increased thickness has two effects: 1) it lessens surface vibrations which in time will weaken the wing; 2) it simplifies the maze of ribs and spars now built into wings to stiffen them...