And for a carbon-Nomex, alien-tech confection, it's a delight to find that it runs on SU carburettors.

BBC: Trick of the light: A California road trip

Relatively little of that goes to the Nomex-clad fire-fighters shown battling heroically on the evening news.

ECONOMIST: Fire in the west: Another costly war that America can never win? | The

Carbon-Nomex might be prone to point-puncture, but glazed into panels in this format, a good solid smack means precisely nothing to it.

BBC: Trick of the light: A California road trip

Interior walls that look like hardwood paneling are in fact made of paper-thin wood veneer on top of Nomex honeycomb, a lightweight paper-and-resin material normally found in jet airplanes.

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Despite antique appearances, the car is actually built from a carbon-fibre monocoque produced in an aerospace-grade autoclave (in this case, one that Boeing uses), with a body sculpted from a carbon- Nomex sandwich.

BBC: Trick of the light: A California road trip

The performance and safety materials division supplies high-performance chemicals and materials that cater to a wide range of industries, examples being performance polymers such Nylon, and high-strength materials used for safety materials, such as DuPontTM Kevlar, Nomex and Tyvek.

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