The operation of Aircraft Structures under consideration of various damage types and -sizes for a limited period of time is not unique – other Industries like Nuclear Power Plant Engineering follow a similar concept. However, flying vehicles have a specific constrain: Gravity. The option to increase Damage Tolerance by decreasing stress levels is limited, because that option is adding weight.

A publication from Delft University in 1988, reporting about the Fiber Metal Laminate ARALL, which obviously allows to design for high damage tolerance in combination with weight saving (compared with monolithic aluminium structures), stimulated MBB fatigue engineers to visit Delft University in the same year, in order to learn about some technical details and to discuss opportunities to join forces for FML structure developments. At the time of that visit, Delft substituted the Kevlar prepregs in ARALL by Glass Fiber prepregs, embedded in 2024 aluminium this FML was christened “GLARE”.

First F&DT tests in the MBB laboratories with an A320 butt strap made of GLARE2 showed very positive results in 1989 and would have allowed a first serial introduction in an Airbus aircraft.

The lecture will include an overview about the FML structure development at the interface between practical aircraft sizing, strength justification and aircraft operational demands (Airbus), and some more scientific support some provided by the Dutch technology partners for the A380 GLARE panel development. It followed a damage tolerance related FML application on the A400M and a joint development of automated FML manufacturing. Finally a brief overview about the FML skin development for the Rear Center Tank of the A321-XLR will be provided.