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by Robotbeat 2375 days ago
Strongly disagree there. The material is perfectly fine, in part due to massive safety margins.

Composites have been in use in crewed aerospace vehicles for ~55 years (or arguably >80 years).

Composite aircraft were developed in the early 1960s, although first use of composites goes back to the 1930s, and even the Space Shuttle developed in the 1970s made extensive use of composites... not just carbon fiber and kevlar, but also materials considered cutting edge today, like metal-matrix boron fiber and carbon-carbon.

The materials are perfectly ready, if you're willing to pay the cost of testing, analysis, and margin. It took just ~35 years to go from Wright Brothers and their wooden aircraft to all-aluminum pressurized airliners (and yeah, there were folks who were skeptical of aluminum at that time as well).

Given at least 50 years in extensive use, I can't see how waiting longer will help[0]. The alternative is permanent stasis.

[0]More analysis or more margin or more testing is an argument I could buy into, but not being "too early for prime time."