A novel two-step methodology is successfully developed to fabricate superhydrophobic surfaces of aluminum alloys. The essential procedure is that samples are first immersed and etched in a boiling aqueous solution of NaOH for 5 min without preprocessing, and then they are modified for 30 min in an ethanol solution of lauric acid, cheaper and more efficient than the fluorinated silane frequently adopted by other researchers. If the concentration of NaOH solution is larger than 5 g/L, the contact angle of the prepared surfaces will be larger than 150 degrees with a negligible hysteresis. Such a fast, low-cost, and reliable method for superhydrophobic surfaces implies significant promising industrial applications. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.