1. Introduction

The world population is growing and the trend to further urbanisation is undamped. In addition, the economic development proceeds especially in the emerging countries. Hence, a further growth of the world air traffic can be expected, and the total number of commercial aircraft is expected to double within the next 15 years. At the same time, a large number of old aircraft must be replaced. Governments have set ambitious targets with respect to highest safety and highest environmental standards at even lower travel cost. New technologies are required to tackle these challenges by the next generation of aircraft. Composites offer additional product value and have increasingly been used for different parts of the airframe for almost 100 years of aviation history. After a discussion of the market development and a summary of the history and milestones of composites used for airframe structures, the true value of light weight, the most important material requirements and the key contributors as well as the main lever arms for even lighter future airframe are introduced.