Airbus Helicopters PioneerLab

What a beautiful picture.
Bio based material? What do they mean? Are we going to make compost out of our retired helo?
 
Bio based material? What do they mean?
Material made from renewable biomass sources.
One advantage of bioplastics is their independence from fossil fuel as a raw material, which is a finite and globally unevenly distributed resource linked to petroleum politics and environmental impacts. Life cycle analysis studies show that some bioplastics can be made with a lower carbon footprint than their fossil counterparts, for example when biomass is used as raw material and also for energy production. However, other bioplastics' processes are less efficient and result in a higher carbon footprint than fossil plastics.
 
But why? Does Airbus plans to build a million of helo?!
I understand bio plastic for high usage items but not for something as rare, sensitive and conservative as a rotary wings aircraft.
 
Keeping their options open. Cheaper in the long run?
As for strength - starting from renewable biomass, you can replicate some plastics traditionally made from fossil sources - which started as biomass in the first place. Quote from wiki:
The distinction between non-fossil-based (bio)plastic and fossil-based plastic is of limited relevance since materials such as petroleum are themselves merely fossilized biomass. As such, whether any kind of plastic is degradable or non-degradable (durable) depends on its molecular structure, not on whether or not the biomass constituting the raw material is fossilized. Both durable bioplastics, such as Bio-PET or biopolyethylene (bio-based analogues of fossil-based polyethylene terephthalate and polyethylene), and degradable bioplastics, such as polylactic acid, polybutylene succinate, or polyhydroxyalkanoates, exist.
 

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