TITANIUM as it structural material was introduced
industrially in the United States during the early
1950's; the major use of this material at that time was
in the military jet aircraft. During the 1950's, the amount of titanium used for this application increased steadily. However, with the advent of missiles, less emphasis has been placed on manned military aircraft ; therefore. the demand for titanium for this application has declined.
But the future of titanium Is undimmed. It will play
a more and more important role in the advanced air and space craft structures and chemical ware of the future. There are various reasons for titaniurm's finding an important place in industry. First, titanium is the fourth most abundant metal in the earth's crust, the
order being aluntiliinin, iron. magnesium and titanium. Second, ductile titanium has very attractive mechanical properties both at low and high temperatures. Third, titanium is one of the fairly light metals :its density
is about half-way bets\ccn those of aluminium and iron