Editing Duralumin (section)

=== Aviation ===
[[File:ZRS-4_USS_Akron_duralumin_sample.jpg|thumb|upright|left|Duralumin sample from the 1931 airship [[USS Akron (ZRS-4)|USS ''Akron'' (ZRS-4)]] ]]

German scientific literature openly published information about duralumin, its composition and heat treatment, before the outbreak of [[World War I]] in 1914. Despite this, use of the alloy outside [[German Empire | Germany]] did not occur until after fighting ended in 1918. Reports of German use during World War I, even in technical journals such as [[Flight (magazine) |''Flight'']], could still mis-identify its key alloying component as magnesium rather than copper.<ref>{{ cite journal | title = Zeppelin or Schütte-Lanz? | journal = [[Flight (magazine)|Flight]] | date = 7 September 1916 | page = 758 | url = https://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1916/1916%20-%200762.html }}</ref> Engineers in the UK showed little interest in duralumin until after the war.<ref>{{ cite journal | title = Metal Construction of Aircraft | last = Thurston  |first=A.P. | journal = [[Flight (magazine)|Flight]] | date = 22 May 1919 | pages = 680–684 | url = https://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1919/1919%20-%200682.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110601213511/https://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1919/1919%20-%200682.html |archive-date=2011-06-01}}</ref>

[[File:Junkers J.I - Ray Wagner Collection Image (20821101334).jpg|thumb|right|The first mass-production aircraft to make extensive use of duralumin, the armored [[Junkers J.I]] [[sesquiplane]] of World War I]]
The earliest known attempt to use duralumin for a heavier-than-air aircraft structure occurred in 1916, when [[Hugo Junkers]] first introduced its use in the airframe of the [[Junkers J 3]], a single-engined monoplane "technology demonstrator" that marked the first use of the Junkers trademark duralumin corrugated skinning.  The [[Junkers]] company completed only the covered wings and tubular fuselage framework of the J 3 before abandoning its development. The slightly later, solely [[Idflieg aircraft designation system#List of Idflieg class letter prefixes|''IdFlieg''-designated]] [[Junkers J.I]] armoured [[Biplane#Sesquiplane |sesquiplane]] of 1917, known to the factory as the Junkers J 4, had its all-metal wings and horizontal stabilizer made in the same manner as the J 3's wings had been, like the experimental and airworthy all-duralumin [[Junkers J 7]] single-seat fighter design, which led to the [[Junkers D.I]] low-wing monoplane fighter, introducing all-duralumin aircraft structural technology to [[Luftstreitkräfte | German military aviation]] in 1918.

Its first use in [[aerostat]]ic airframes came in rigid [[airship]] frames, eventually including all those of the "Great Airship" era of the 1920s and 1930s: the British-built [[R100]], the German passenger Zeppelins [[LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin|LZ 127 ''Graf Zeppelin'']], [[LZ 129 Hindenburg|LZ 129 ''Hindenburg'']], [[LZ 130 Graf Zeppelin II|LZ 130 ''Graf Zeppelin II'']], and the [[U.S. Navy]] airships [[USS Los Angeles (ZR-3)|USS ''Los Angeles'' (ZR-3, ex-LZ 126)]], [[USS Akron (ZRS-4)|USS ''Akron'' (ZRS-4)]] and [[USS Macon (ZRS-5)|USS ''Macon'' (ZRS-5)]].<ref>{{Cite journal |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=VigDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA26 |last= Burton |first= Walter E. |title= The Zeppelin Grows Up |journal= [[Popular Science| Popular Science Monthly]] |date= October 1929 |page= 26}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.century-of-flight.net/Aviation%20history/coming%20of%20age/airships.htm |title="The Great Airships" Century of Flight |access-date=2012-09-06 |archive-date=2018-04-26 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180426214345/http://www.century-of-flight.net/Aviation%20history/coming%20of%20age/airships.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref>