Senior Tech Fellow, SAMPE Japan Techno Forum 2020

Senior Technical Fellow (CMA) Nobuyuki Odagiri gave a lecture during the SAMPE Japan Techno Forum 2020, which was held to celebrate its 35-year anniversary. He participated via Zoom from Washington, USA. Other speakers included Mr. Will Shaffer, President, Boeing Japan, Vice President, Boeing International, Mr. Masaki Higurashi, Director, METI, and Mr. Yuichiro Aoki from JAXA. Subject was “history and future prospects of composite materials technology in aircraft applications.” He introduced trends in composite materials development and the major events in aircraft development by two-decade blocks in a systematic and easy-to-understand manner: the 1960’s—dawn of Carbon Fibers, the 1980’s—improvement in performance and toughness, the 2000’s—automated molding/digital technology, and the 2020’s and onward—high production rate, UAM, and sustainability. The lecture on the trend in the 2020’s and onward was particularly meaningful because it contained valuable information disseminated from the U.S., which leads the world in these fields.