The fuselage can be short, and seemingly unaerodynamic, as in this Christen Eagle 2

The fuselage (from the French fuselé "spindle-shaped") is an aircraft's main body section that holds crew and passengers or cargo. In single engine aircraft it will usually contain an engine, although in some amphibious aircraft the single engine is mounted on a pylon attached to the fuselage. The fuselage also serves to position control and stabilization surfaces in specific relationships to lifting surfaces, required for aircraft stability and maneuverability. Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (1800x1272, 547 KB) Christen Eagle 2 at Kemble Airfield, Gloucestershire, England. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (1800x1272, 547 KB) Christen Eagle 2 at Kemble Airfield, Gloucestershire, England. ... Airbus A380 An aircraft is any machine capable of atmospheric flight. ... Cargo is a term used to denote goods or produce being transported generally for commercial gain, usually on a ship, plane, train or truck. ... An amphibious or amphibian aircraft is an aircraft that can land on either land or water. ... For pylons of overhead lines, see Electricity pylon Pylon Noun from Greek πυλώνας gateway tower like structure, usually one of a series, used to support high voltage electricity cables. ...

Fuselages can be constructed using four types of structures:

• A box truss structure. The structural elements resemble those of a bridge, with emphasis on using linked trianglular elements. The aerodyamic shape is completed by additional elements called formers and stringers and is then covered with fabric and painted. Most early aircraft used this technique with wood and wire trusses and this type of structure is still in use in many lightweight aircraft using welded steel tube trusses. This method is especially suitable for amateur-built aircraft kits, where a complete welded truss structure is delivered with the fitting of other components, covering, and finishing completed by the user, as it ensures that a robust, uniform load bearing structure is within the completed aircraft.

• The geodesic construction used by Barnes Wallis for British Vickers aircraft between the wars and into World War 2 was an application of the use of structural elements to form the whole of the fuselage, including its aerodynamic shape. In this type of construction multiple flat strip stringers are wound about the formers in opposite spiral directions, forming a basket-like appearance. This proved to be light, strong, and rigid and had the advantage of being to be made almost entirely of wood. A fabric covering over the structure completed the aerodynamic shell. The logical evolution of this is the creation of fuselages using molded plywood, in which multiple sheets are laid with the grain in differing directions to give the monocoque type below.

The Vans RV-7 fuselage is slender for high speed flight

• A monocoque shell. In this, the exterior surface of the fuselage is also the primary structure. A typical early form of this was built using moulded plywood, where the layers of plywood are formed over a "plug" or within a mold, A later form of this structure uses fiberglass cloth impregnated with polyester or epoxy resin. A simple form of this used in some amateur-built aircraft uses rigid expanded foam plastic with a fiberglass covering, eliminating the necessity of fabricating molds, but requiring more effort in finishing. An example of a moulded plywood aircraft is the de Havilland Mosquito fighter/light bomber of World War II. The use of molded fiberglass using negative molds (which give a nearly finished product) is prevalent in the series production of many modern sailplanes. The use of molded composites for fuselage structures is being extended to large passenger aircraft such as the Boeing 787 Dreamliner.

• Semi-monocoque. This is the preferred method of constructing an all-aluminum fuselage. First, a series of formers in the shape of the fuselage cross sections are held in position on a rigid fixture. These formers are then joined with lightweight longitudinal elements called stringers. These are in turn covered with a skin of sheet aluminum, attached by riveting or by bonding with special adhesives. The fixture is then disassembled and removed from the fuseleage, which is then fitted out with wiring, controls, and interior equipment such as seats and luggage bins. Most modern large aircraft are built using this technique, but use several large sections constructed in this fashion which are then joined with fasteners to form the complete fuselage. As the accuracy of the final product is determined largely by the costly fixture, this form is suitable for series production, where a large number of identical aircraft are to be produced. Early examples of this type include the Douglas Aircraft DC-2 and DC-3 civil aircraft and the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress.

The forward double-deck fuselage of a South African Airways Boeing 747-400

Both monocoque and semi-monocoque are referred to as "stressed skin" structures as all or a portion of the load is taken by the surface covering. A box truss structure in a bridge A box truss is a structure composed of three or more chords connected by transverse and/or diagonal structural elements. ... Welding is a joining process that produces coalescence of materials (typically metals or thermoplastics) by heating them to welding temperature, with or without the application of pressure or by the application of pressure alone, and with or without the use of filler material. ... The old steel cable of a colliery winding tower Steel is a metal alloy whose major component is iron, with carbon being the primary alloying material. ... Aircraft kit is the pre-fabricated parts of an aircraft. ... Sir Barnes Neville Wallis Sir Barnes Neville Wallis, CBE, FRS, RDI, commonly known as Barnes Wallis, (September 26, 1887 – October 30, 1979) was a British scientist, engineer and inventor. ... Vickers Armstrong (Aircraft) company logo Vickers, founded as the Vickers Company in 1828, was a British manufacturer, primarily of military equipment, traditionally based in Barrow-in-Furness. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (1800x1239, 317 KB) Vans RV-7 (G-KELS) at Kemble Airfield, Gloucestershire, England. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (1800x1239, 317 KB) Vans RV-7 (G-KELS) at Kemble Airfield, Gloucestershire, England. ... Monocoque (French for single shell) or unibody is a construction technique that uses the external skin of an object to support some or most of the load on the structure. ... Model constructed from plywood. ... Moldy Bread Molds, or mould, are various fungi that cover surfaces in the form of fluffy mycelia and usually produce masses of spores (most commonly asexual spores but sometimes sexual). ... This article or section should be merged with Fiberglass Glass-reinforced plastic (GRP), is a composite material made of a plastic reinforced by fine fibers made of glass. ... The de Havilland Mosquito (The Wooden Wonder a. ... Combatants Allies: Soviet Union United States United Kingdom and others Axis Powers: Germany Japan Italy and others Commanders Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Harry S. Truman Winston Churchill Adolf Hitler Hideki Tojo Benito Mussolini Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead: 33,000,000 Total dead: 50,000,000 Military... Gliders are un-powered heavier-than-air aircraft. ... The Boeing 787 Dreamliner is a mid-sized wide body passenger airliner currently under development by Boeing Commercial Airplanes and scheduled to enter service in 2008. ... General Name, Symbol, Number aluminium, Al, 13 Chemical series poor metals Group, Period, Block 13, 3, p Appearance silvery Atomic mass 26. ... A rivetted buffer beam on a steam locomotive A rivet is a mechanical fastener consisting of a smooth cylindrical shaft with heads on either end, the second one formed in position. ... A fastener is a hardware device that mechanically joins or affixes two or more objects together. ... The Douglas DC-2 was a 14 seat, twin-propeller airliner produced by the Douglas Aircraft Corporation starting in 1934. ... The Douglas DC-3 is a fixed-wing, propeller-driven aircraft which revolutionized air transport in the 1930s and 1940s, and is generally regarded as one of the most significant transport aircraft ever made (also see Boeing 707 and Boeing 747). ... The Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress was the first mass-produced, four-engine heavy bomber. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (1800x1246, 171 KB) South African Airways Boeing 747-400 (ZS-SAK) on tow at London Heathrow Airport, England. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (1800x1246, 171 KB) South African Airways Boeing 747-400 (ZS-SAK) on tow at London Heathrow Airport, England. ...

Exceptions

"Flying wing" aircraft, such as the Northrop YB-49 Flying Wing and the Northrop B-2 Spirit bomber have no separate fuselage; instead what would be the fuselage is a thickened portion of the wing structure. Northrop YB-49 flying wing. ... A YB-49 being flown during a test flight The Northrop YB-49 was a prototype jet-powered flying wing heavy bomber aircraft developed for the United States Air Force shortly after World War II. It was a development of the piston-engined Northrop YB-35, and the two YB... The B-2 Spirit, made by Northrop Grumman, is an American multi-role stealth bomber able to drop conventional and nuclear weapons. ...

Conversely there have been a small number of aircraft designs which have no wing per se but use the fuselage to generate lift. Examples include NASA's experimental lifting body designs and the Vought XF5U-1 Flying Pancake. NASA logo Listen to this article · (info) This audio file was created from an article revision dated 2005-09-01, and does not reflect subsequent edits to the article. ... The lifting body is an aircraft configuration where the body itself produces lift. ... Vought is the name of several related aerospace firms. ... Vought V-173 The Vought XF5U-1 Flying Flapjack was an experimental U.S. Navy fighter aircraft which was designed during World War II by Charles H. Zimmermann. ...

See also

• Nose art
• Empennage

Nose art on a B-17 Flying Fortress Nose art is a painting or design done near the nose of a warplane, usually for decorative purposes. ... Empennage is an aviation term used to describe the tail portion of an aircraft. ...

External links

• NASA page on fuselage