Patent ID: 8636936

Claim:
A method of fabricating an aircraft part, the method comprising: laying up a plurality of fiber plies and flat metal foils, the fiber plies having reinforcing fibers oriented in a single direction, wherein said laying up includes positioning a plurality of said fiber plies between at least one of said foils in the form of a perforated metal sheet and at least one of said foils in the form of a non-perforated metal sheet; infusing resin into the resulting layup to flow past each perforated metal sheet and intersperse between the plurality of fiber plies and between the fibers of each ply; and curing the resin-infused layup to form the aircraft part as a fiber-metal laminate including both the fiber plies and the metal foils, wherein the fibers provide strength to the resulting part in the single direction, and wherein the foils provide bearing strength to the resulting part.