Origins of Composites
The rapid development and use of composite materials beginning in the 1940s had three main driving forces.
Military vehicles, such as airplanes, helicopters, and rockets, placed a premium on high-strength, light-weight materials. While the metallic components that had been used up to that point certainly did the job in terms of mechanical properties, the heavy weight of such components was prohibitive. The higher the weight of the plane or helicopter itself, the less cargo its engines could carry.
Polymer industries were quickly growing and tried to expland the market of plastics to a variety of applications. The emergence of new, light-weight polymers from development laboratories offered a possible solution for a variety of uses, provided something could be done to increase the mechanical properties of plastics.
The extremely high theoretical strength of certain materials, such as glass fibers, was being discovered. The question was how to use these potentially high-strength materials to solve the problems posed by the military's demands.
One may conveniently speak of four generations of composites:
1st generation (1940s): Glass Fiber Reinforced Composites
2nd generation (1960s): High Performance Composites in the post-Sputnik era
3rd generation (1970s & 1980s): The Search for New Markets and the Synergy of Properties
4th generation (1990s): Hybrid Materials, Nanocomposites and Biomimetic Strategies
Summary: The Impact of Composites on Materials Research