The most promising sail material has a carbon-fibre backing coated with a thin layer (just a few tens of atoms thick) of aluminium.

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The advantage of this approach is that it retains the basic fibre-plus-matrix structure of the material.

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It took carbon fibre a quarter of a century to go from laboratory curiosity to engineering material.

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Instead, the carbon fibre is shipped to SGL Automotive's German factory in Wackersdorf, where a thermoplastic material is injected to bind them together into reinforced plastic sheets.

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