The use of FRP fiber reinforced plastic materials

Fiberglass is one of many materials that can be used with resins (plastics) to form strong and lightweight composite structures including fiberglass, cloth (cotton or man-made), carbon fiber, non-woven glass or carbon mats, Coir (coconut fiber), modal (beech tree fiber), bamboo, and even hemp.
  
In fact, most people call fiberglass as fiber reinforced plastic (FRP), it's a composite material like the popular fiberglass mat thermoplastic (GMT sheet) today, but FRP has been around for at least seven years before carbon fiber ten years.
  
One of the earliest uses of   FRP was in the manufacture of helmet liners by the U.S. military.
  
   After the war, returning to the GI began to experiment with materials in the form of body and hull. Sailboats were the first items built with this material, and powered boats were used a few years later. Because very little was known about FRP strength in those years, most of it was "overbuilt". Hulls and bodies made in the 50s and 60s are still nearly indestructible today.