Composites such as fibreglass and carbon fibre bonded in a plastic resin are already widely used to replace metal in making, for instance, cars and aircraft.
复合材料，比如以光纤玻璃和碳纤维合成的塑料树脂，已经在车辆、飞行器等产品制造中广泛代替金属。
2
But in 2008, the firm found that the 787's carbon-fibre "wingbox", the internal fuselage structure the wings attach to, was not strong enough and needed stiffening with metal spars.
One reason for the emergence of firms such as Aptera is that designing a new vehicle has become as much an exercise in software simulation as in metal (or even carbon-fibre) bashing.