Bullet-Proof Sheets of Carbon Nanotubes

An anonymous reader notes a CNN.com report on Nanocomp Technologies, the first in the world to make sheets of carbon nanotubes. "In April, [CEO] Lashmore had a mechanical multicaliber gun shoot bullets at different versions of his sheet, each less than a fifth of an inch thick. ... Army tests show the material works as well as Kevlar. The military also hopes to replace copper wiring in planes and satellites with highly conductive nanotubes, saving millions of dollars in fuel costs."

The first thing you hear about a new technology...

[clyde_cadiddlehopper]

In the 1980s I worked in advanced ceramic materials development for Corning. We were pitching insulating sleeves to be cast into cylinder heads. At a meeting with the Ford SVO engineering group, one of their engineers said "The first thing you hear about a new material is always the best thing you will hear about it. After that, the 'yeah, buts' begin." Yeah, but is it safe? Yeah, but is it affordable? Yeah, but will it conduct / dissipate heat? Yeah, but is it environmentally friendly? It takes time for systems to be redesigned around the special attributes of revolutionary materials.

Re:hmm

[Raffaello]

Not that I'm defending wasteful military spending, but the reason they want this is not so much for the dollar savings on fuel, but for the logistical advantages of needing less fuel: extended range of existing aircraft, reduced need for aerial refueling, more sorties on the same fuel budget, etc.

Vests?

[bryanp]

If they could make it work it sounds like it would be a great material for a bullet resistant vest.

Although getting hit with a taser while wearing one ...

Re:Calling BS

[Anonymous Coward]

The fuel cost savings comes in the form of weight. Copper is likely a lot heavier than the carbon nanotube material. Less weight, less fuel to keep the plane aloft. Alternatively, they could use it for carrying heavier payloads.

Re:You missed one -

[ShadowRangerRIT]

And to be fair, in some cases the new materials have taken over. Most passenger jet designs are switching to carbon fiber bodies; the cost is high, but the lighter material means that the you need far less fuel on every trip, eventually paying for itself. (Yes, the 787 is having problems in production, but I suspect that's more a matter of poor coordination than any intrinsic weakness in the material.) And the GP ignored plastics, which relatively recently displaced all sorts of time tested materials in the construction of all manner of products. Who's to say that we won't find a way to produce carbon nanotubes cheaply in the next few years?

Re:Violence

[PitaBred]

Someone's always shooting at someone else. If this sheet blocks bullets effectively, it means that whoever is behind it remains huggable. I'm all for that.

Re:You missed one -

[Anonymous Coward]

I get your point, but your examples are poor. Wood and ceramics have largely been supplanted by plastic and as for iron, since the nineteenth century, steel has largely taken its place.

Re:hmm

[afidel]

The problem isn't the cost of the fuel, it's the cost and lost opportunities from the long supply train. Most non-lopsided battles aren't determined by who has the better equipment or even the better soldiers but by who has the better quartermaster.

Re:Escalation

[Anonymous Coward]

Probably BS, but makes for an interestingly morbid story.

Sounds like a dumdum [wikipedia.org], but also like BS, because the should've tested the bullet on a dummy target beforehand.