Dear Colleagues,

In the early 1960s, fibrous materials such as fiber glass, boron and carbon/graphite made their appearance in the aeronautical scenario and they were referred to as “advanced composites” to differentiate them from wood. These materials were fascinating for airplane manufacturers because of their ability to resist the applied loads at a fraction of the weight of the metallic alloys.

Since that period, composite materials have been used worldwide, in an increasing number of applications, moving from secondary to primary structures such as wings, fuselages, control surfaces and spacecraft.

New materials, processing methods, and numerical tools are still being continuously developed with the objective to reduce structural weight, minimize environmental impact, improve a vehicle’s cost efficiency, reduce energy consumption and provide advanced solutions for passive safety and maintenance-free structures.

This Special Issue aims to present the positive expectations with regard to composite materials, but also to list the drawbacks resulting from their improper or inefficient use, aiming to provide experience and evidence to support efficient future applications in the aeronautical field. Researchers from both the academic and industrial environment are invited to publish results of their experiences, lessons learnt and their view of future achievements in this field.

Papers emphasizing technological progressive improvements, referring to numerical, experimental as well as real applications, with a focus on the expected and the achieved results, addressed to the broad aeronautical community, are especially encouraged.

Dr. Francesco Marulo
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Materials is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• Composite Aerospace Structures
• Design and Optimization Strategies
• Structural Health Monitoring
• Stress Analysis
• Numerical Methods
• Manufacturing Processes
• Structural Maintenance
• Impact Analysis
• Fatigue Behavior and Crack Propagation
• Experimental Methods
• Smart Structures
• Cost Effectiveness and Life Cycle Management