Question: can you make airplane safer but light enough to fly?

David Taylor answered on 20 Nov 2014:

That’s a very good question. Aircraft have to be very light of course, which is why they use metals like aluminium and titanium instead of steel. But over time these metals wear out and crack, so they have to inspect the aircraft very regularly to see what parts are wearing out and replace them. Aircraft are really very safe because of this, but expensive.
A possible new solution is to use materials like carbon fibre reinforced plastics (already being used in tennis rackets, golf clubs, bikes etc). Some new aeroplanes have been made from these kinds of materials but we need to do more research on them.