AIRFRAME STRUCTURES

INSTRUCTOR: ARQUAM WAHAJ

FUSELAGE (ATA 53)
● Carries all ground and flight loads.
● Must be of max. strength to absorb all these tremendous loads.
● Provides provisions for wings, stabilizers & in some aircrafts, landing gears
attachments.
● Modern fuselage is composed of frames with formers (carry radial loads).
● Longerons with stringers (carry axial loads).

● Three types of constructional methods are used.

1. Truss Fuselage.

2. Russ Fuselage.
3. Stressed Skin Fuselage.
1. TRUSS FUSELAGE
● Consists of struts for compression loads & wires that run diagonally between
struts which carry tension loads.
2. RUSS FUSELAGE
● Russ fuselage is constructed from welded tubes.
● In this, diagonal members take all the compression and tensile loads.
3. STRESSED SKIN FUSELAGE
● Stressed skin is the one, that carries loads.

1. PURE MONOCOQUE: This form of stressed skin carries all the lodas without
any load carrying structure.

2. SEMI-MONOCOQUE: This form of construction has a skin carrying a large

amount of load but with an internal structure of frames, formers carrying radial
loads & longerons, stringers carrying longitudinal loads.
PAX. CABIN (ATA 25)
● Aircraft with pax. Seats must comply with crashworthiness regulations.
● Seats with a person correctly strapped in place, must be able to survive (24g)
without floor mountings failing and seat itself collapsing.
● Now a days, a seat must endure (16g) without floor mountings failing and seat
itself collapsing.
● All other emergency equipment must endure (9g).
DOORS (ATA 52)
● Two types of doors are used in aircraft pax. cabin.
1.Pax entry/exit doors.
2.Emergency exit doors.
● These are plug type doors which are closed from inside & keep in closed
position by differential pressure forces.
● These doors can’t be opened mid-flight.
● These are used in all pressurized aircrafts.
● Non plug type doors are used in cargo/freight doors.
● These doors are closed from outside and must withstand all the pressure
forces from inside.
● These are operated mechanically,electrically or hydraulically.
Non-pressurized aircrafts doors still have to be safe with a system of handles and
latches that operate in a specific order or after the application of a certain force.
PRESSURIZATION SEALS
● As aircrafts is pressurized, in order to prevent pressure leakage from
openings such as doors, panels and windows. They must be completely
sealed from the edges.
● Points where control cables pass in and out of pressure hull, utilise some form
of flexible bellows which are leak proof & move with control cables.
● Doors utilize inflatable pressure seals around the edges, which inflate from
cabin air & make area leak proof.
WINDOWS (ATA 56)
● On pressurized aircrafts, cockpit windshields are made of toughened
sandwich of glass/vinyl/glass.
● They have to comply with very strict bird strike regulations.
● Pax windows are made from acrylic or mylar.
● Pax windows are two layers acrylic windows with a space in between them.
● This is a fail-safe philosophy, if one fails, other will take the pressurization
loads.
● Some aircrafts have a third pane of acrylic to help reduce engine noise.
WINGS (ATA 57)
Wings can be classified into different groups.

1. CANTILEVER WINGS: Having no external bracings or external support.

2. NON-CANTILEVER WINGS: Having external bracings or external support.

3. BIPLANE: Having one upper and one lower wing supporting each other by struts and wires.

4. MODERN AIRCRAFTS: Have the wings composed of spars (the major load taking members of
wing) and ribs (give the aerofoil shape to the wing).
FUEL STORAGE (ATA 28)
Fuel tanks are categorized into three categories.

1. Rigid fuel tanks.

2. Flexible fuel tanks.
3. Integral fuel tanks.
LANDING GEARS (ATA 32)

● Also called undercarriages.

● Can be wing or fuselage mounted.
NACELLES & PYLONS (ATA 54)
● Aircrafts having wing mounted engines have pylons that give aerodynamic
fairing to the wing to engine attachments (pod installation).
● Nacelles give the aerodynamic fairing to the gas turbine engines.
● Pylons take thrust loads and transmit it to the aircraft.
● Pylons make it easy for ground maintenance staff to perform maintenance
tasks on engine or engine removal/installation.
● Nacelles contain firewalls, so it is safer in the event of fire or explosion as
engine is isolated from the fuselage or wings by firewall.