AeroGel Garments (Will AeroGel ever replace down?)

I posted a number of links a while back. Take a look. I’m not exactly sure why there seems to be so little interest in the forums, but that could be because it is so expensive. Still, that never stopped anyone from using other aerospace technology for ultralight gear…

An Aerogel jacket of equivalent warmth will not be lighter than a high quality down jacket. Although the thermal conductivity of the best available Aerogel fabric (Spaceloft 6250) has .5x the thermal conductivity of the best down (twice as efficient for a given thickness), the density is 56x the best down. The Spaceloft density is high because in order to make the Aerogel resilient they inserted the crystals in the lattice of a woven fabric.

As an example, the Nunatak SkakaPlus in size medium provides a garment clo value of approximately 13.8 for a total weight of 9.6 oz and a fill weight of 5 oz. The same size jacket would need four layers of Spaceloft 6250 (.24″) to provide the equivalent warmth. The loft of the Aerogel jacket would be half that of the down jacket for the same warmth but the fill weight would be approximately 26.67x more.

New ‘flexible’ aerogel garment hits the market:

http://www.orosapparel.com/products/lukla-jacket-men

No weight given though…

Anyone know how the new polyimide film aerogels compare to high quality goose down on a weight basis? While ridiculously expensive, they are starting to become available to the general market.