Published online by Cambridge University Press: 26 February 2011
Since the late seventies, the Air Force Materials Laboratory and Air Force Office of Scientific Research has had a very energetic program in lyotropic liquid crystalline rigid-rod polymers. The objective of the multifaceted program was the attainment of mechanical properties for a structural material comparable with those currently obtained from fiber reinforced composites. This paper will describe the orgins of this program as derived from the unique aggregation properties of aromatic heterocyclic ladder polymers.