Commercial Aluminum-Lithium alloy is an advanced material for aerospace technology (most notably the new AIRBUS A 380), primarily because of their low density, high resistance to corrosion, and excellent fatigue and cryogenic toughness properties.
The density of this exceptional material is 2.6 while titanium is 4.9. Aluminum-Lithium was also selected from the aluminum alloys because of its high resistance to corrosion.
Aluminum-Lithium base alloys were started by adding Lithium to Aluminum-Copper, Aluminum-Magnesium and Aluminum-Copper-Magnesium alloys. These alloys were chosen to superimpose the precipitation hardening characteristics of Aluminum-Copper, Aluminum-Magnesium and Aluminum-Copper-Magnesium base precipitates to the hardening of Lithium-containing precipitates.
High lithium Al-Li alloys are extremely promising materials for applications that require light weight and high stiffness.