An aluminum wing on a passenger jet is 37 m long when its temperature is 23°C. At what temperature would the wing be 7 cm (0.07 m) shorter?

Answer 1

Let's assume the aircraft wing is composed largely of aluminum 7075. The coefficient of thermal expansion for Al 7075 is 23.6 µm/m-°C.

If we convert 7 cm into µm, we get 70,000 µm. so:

(70,000/37)/23.6 = 80.16 °C

Since we start at 23 °C and the wing is getting colder, then subtracting 80 would get us to -57 °C