Meet the next carbon fiber

[RNC]

http://www.celluforce.com/upload/IPW_Nanocellulose_Final_131.pdf

Textron (mother company of Bell Helicopter and Lycoming) is throwing money at this stuff.

Short version..

It's the natural cell structure of plants, the reason trees grow so tall and remain rigid.  It can be produced from wood pulp, without the chemical cost of carbon fiber.  It has the same tensile strength as aluminum with 8 times the strength/weight ratio of steel.

And since it's made from an organic material, it's safer to work with than even your trusty ole fiberglass J3.  Dust from cutting it, grinding it, etc is completely harmless, no more dangerous than cutting a board with a saw.

[gotyacovered]

need to find the stock ticker on this one...

[AnonymousHog]

need to find the stock ticker on this one...

I'll second that!

[gotyacovered]

[RNC]

Textron is just an investor, it's a Canadian consortium that is doing the research work on it.  Not sure if they are publicly traded or not but apparently they can produce approximately a ton of this stuff per day at the present time.