Ayeman M. Nahin

A turbine blade in a jet engine glows white-hot. Conventional nickel-based superalloys start to fail at 1200 °C: their strength melts away like butter in a skillet. Yet future turbines need to run even hotter to burn fuel more efficiently. Engineers have proposed a new composition: niobium, tantalum, titanium, and vanadium, mixed in unequal proportions.

Picture a fireplace poker shoved into a blast furnace. Ordinary steel would soften and sag within minutes. Nickel-based superalloys, which make up turbine blades in jet engines, work up to 1300 °C, but beyond that they give in too. Now look at this new niobium-based alloy: at 1500 °C it retains strength comparable to cold aluminum. The secret lies in its internal architecture.