Page 405 - Corrosion Engineering Principles and Practice

374 C h a p t e r 9 A t m o s p h e r i c C o r r o s i o n 375

FIGURE 9.46 Pack rust developing at the base of the weathering steel highway
lamppost shown in Fig. 9.45, only 15 years after its installation.

monument is presently the tallest memorial in the United States and surely
St. Louis most famous icon. The arch is exactly as wide as it is tall.
The excellent performance of austenitic stainless steel in normal
atmospheres combined with the possibility to spot-weld this struc-
tural material, tempted a major manufacturer of stainless steel trains
in the United States to bid for a contract to build two hundred all-
stainless steel air freighters to carry troops, tanks, and guns during
the World War II efforts. In fact, the first entry of the Budd Company
in the world of aeronautics was made in 1930 through the contract
manufacture of aircraft wheels and stainless steel wing ribs, follow-
ing which a complete aircraft was designed and built by the company
in 1931, the BB-1 Pioneer amphibian (Fig. 9.48).
The first stainless steel air freighter, named RB-1 Conestoga, first
flew on October 31, 1943. During testing the RB-1 crashed but the test
pilot reported that the stainless steel construction of the plane contributed
to saving his life. However, the RB-1 had poor flying characteristics and
was plagued with construction delays due to cost overruns and problems
with stainless steel fabrication. Two other prototypes were built followed