![]() Bristol's first draft designs for metal aircraft date from 1914, but it was not until the increase of aircraft production during the First World War began to put pressure on the supply of high-grade timber that there was official interest. Vickers in the UK were one of the first to make steel-framed and sparred aircraft that flew, with their series of R.E.P-type monoplanes no.s 1-8 produced between 19.(1) In Germany, Junkers produced the first true all-metal (for years, aircraft with fabric-clad metal frames were described as all-metal, but the Junkers was steel-skinned as well) aircraft,(2) the Junkers J.1, flown in 1915. There was a realisation too, that mild steel, familiar from bicycle manufacture but with a low strength-to-weight ratio, was not going to be the material of choice once the problems of joining aluminium alloy members together and preventing their corrosion had been solved. ![]() ![]() Metal structures, even fabric-covered metal frames, offered greater robustness for handling and transportation as well as better resistance to tropical climates, and some designers could see the possibilities of metal skinning, stressed or not, for aerodynamically-clean cantilever wings and advanced monocoque fuselages. Soon into the development of powered flight, some manufacturers were beginning to consider the use of metal in airframes to replace wood. ![]()
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