Self-healing technology allows aeroplanes with broken wings to fix themselves

A GROUP of researchers from the University of Bristol are on the verge of making a discovery that will allow self-healing technology to become commonplace.

airplane in the sky seen from behind with copy space in the top and a clipping path in the plane

A GROUP of researchers from the University of Bristol are on the verge of making a discovery that will allow self-healing technology to become the norm.

The research has been flagged as an important step in the emerging field and is set to be presented at a Royal Society meeting in London next week.

Professor Duncan Wass said his team had been working on the technology — which specialises in modifying carbon fibre composite materials — for the past three years.

The project came to fruition after aerospace engineers at the university wanted a preventive solution to tiny, almost undetectable cracks in the wings of aeroplanes.

When looking for a solution, Mr Wass said his team took inspiration from the human body.

“We’ve not evolved to withstand any damage — if we were like that we’d have a skin as thick as a rhinoceros — but if we do get damaged, we bleed, and it scabs and heals,” he told the Independent.

“We just put that same sort of function into a synthetic material: let’s have something that can heal itself.”

The solution came in the form of adding tiny and hollow “microspheres” to the carbon material, which seeps into the cracks and hardens when it comes into contact with a catalyst.

Mr Wass said the technology is the beginning of aircraft wings that can repair themselves, although he admits the outside temperature would affect the speed at which they recovered.

“If you’re on a runway in Dubai it would probably heal in a couple of hours, but if you were on a runway in Reykjavik in winter it would probably be more like 24 hours,” he said.

Mr Wass said the emerging discovery would one day be used to produce self-healing nail polish that could be used to fix household items.

“We’re definitely getting to the stage where in the next five or 10 years we’re going to see things like mobile phone screens that can heal themselves if they crack,” he said.