PARIS — In its search for new, high-tech materials for military programs, the French Ministry of Defense has invested in a plan to make aircraft seats, floors and ceilings out of flax, the same plant linen is made from.

The scheme sounds unusual, but is based on the remarkably strong and light qualities of the crop.

French firm Lineo has been backed by French MoD funding to come up with new ways to use the material, and was showing off the results at the MoD's pavilion at the Paris Air Show on Tuesday.

After harvesting 50 centimeters worth of flax in length from fields in Normandy, the firm figured out a way to heat the strands to cause the release of their natural adhesive, making them stick together to create flat sheets of flax.

The next step has been to work on automotive applications — creating panels using the material.

At the MoD stand, Lineo CEO Francois Vanfleteren held up a panel made of honeycombed paper stuck between two rigid sheets made up of three layers of flax and polyester resin.

"This weighs 2.5 kilograms a square meter compared to a panel made with glass fiber, which would weigh 4 kilograms," he said. "One square meter of the flax panel can sustain a pressure of 100 kilograms."

Apart from its strength and light weight, the flax also deadens vibrations, he said.

The next step has been the use of molds to create panels for aircraft components out of a 50/50 mix of flax and epoxy resin.

"It has to be fire resistant so we developed a self-extinguishing property for the mix," Vanfleteren said.

MoD spokesman Bertrand Guy said the material would not be used for structural parts of an aircraft, but could be used to make lightweight seats, walls, ceilings and floors for military aircraft.

Looking ahead, Vanfleteren said he hoped to build a production line for components by 2018. "We are also talking to farms in Normandy about obtaining more flax," he said.

Email: tkington@defensenews.com

Tom Kington is the Italy correspondent for Defense News.

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