Aircraft Structural Design W2011

AER621 Aircraft Structural Design

Winter 2011
Aircraft Structural Design W2011

The Figure above reveals the complexity of today's large

commercial airliners.
Aircraft Structural Design W2011

The major parts of a conventional fixed-wing aircraft are

the wing, fuselage, empennage (tail), engine mounts, and
undercarriage (landing gear).
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Most of the structure is covered by a thin skin, which

gives the airplane its streamlined aerodynamic shape
while helping to distribute a major portion of the internal
loads.

In flight, the wing supports the weight of the airplane

(including that of the wing itself) plus maneuvering loads
and gust loads. On the ground, landing loads and the
weight of the airplane at rest are borne entirely by the
undercarriage, the main wheels of which may be located
in the wing, which thereby repeats its airborne load-
bearing role.
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The horizontal tailplane with its moving elevator and the

vertical tailplane (fin) with its pivoting rudder provide
longitudinal and directional stability and control, in
combination with the ailerons on the outboard trailing
edges of the main wing.

Since the mid-1950s, supersonic military airplanes have

been equipped with a one-piece, all-moving horizontal
tailplane with no elevator. All-moving vertical fins have
also been employed (e.g., in the North American A-5
Vigilante, the Mach 3-plus Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird,
and the Lockheed F-1l7A Night Hawk stealth fighter).
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In addition to ailerons, the wing may have movable

trailing-edge flaps and leading-edge slats to increase lift
(and therefore drag) at low speeds, as well as spoilers to
"kill" lift (after touchdown, for example).

Delta-wing aircraft usually have no horizontal tail, and

the elevons on the trailing edge of the delta planform
serve the dual role of aileron and elevator, as well as flap.
In general, Elevons are aircraft control surfaces that
combine the functions of the elevator (used for pitch
control) and the aileron (used for roll control)
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Engines may be mounted on the wings, on the fuselage,

or both. Propellers are usually placed in the "tractor"
position, ahead of the piston or turbine power unit.
Notable exceptions include the giant Consolidated-Vultee
B-36 Peacemaker and the all composite Beech/Raytheon
Starship previously discussed.

Jet engines (efficient turbofans nowadays) are either

housed within the aft fuselage (most military fighters) or
mounted on the a/c wing and/or aft fuselage (commercial
and general aviation jets). With few exceptions, wing-
mounted jet engines on modern aircraft are slung beneath
the wing in streamlined nacelles.
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The major structural elements of a conventional

semimonocoque fuselage are the transverse frames and
the longitudinal stringers.
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The skin is attached (usually riveted) to both, and frames

and stiffeners may themselves be fastened together where
they intersect. Bulkheads are major transverse members
that are more massive than a typical frame.
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Pressure bulkheads fill the entire fuselage cross section.

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Primary longitudinal load-bearing members are known as

longerons. Large low-wing aircraft also have a keelson, a
massive longeron that runs along the bottom of the
fuselage. Its purpose is to transmit bending loads across
the central gap created by the landing gear wells and the
wing carry-through structure.
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Bonded, bolted or riveted doublers or frames surround

cutouts (e.g., windows and doors) to pick .up and
transmit loads that would otherwise have been carried
across the opening by the absent structure.
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Where the fuselage of a large transport contains mostly

empty space, that of a typical modern military jet is
crammed with engines, fuel cells, avionics, weaponry,
and other gear. All of this must be accessed through
numerous removable panels and access doors- so many,
in fact, that a modem fighter fuselage cannot be
considered as semimonocoque.
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Ribs and spars are the major internal structural

components of a wing. Like fuselage frames, the ribs
define the shape of the attached envelope of skin, which
is anchored as well to many spanwise stringers
(stiffeners) on the upper and lower surfaces.
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Wing spars play much the same role as longerons in the

fuselage, transmitting most of the bending load arising
from the wing's support of the aircraft's weight. The
vertical webs of the spars, in combination with the wing
cover skins, act as torque boxes to resist the twist that
also accompanies lift. The stiffeners pick up some of the
bending load in both the wing and the fuselage, but their
primary purpose is to aid the ribs and frames in stiffening
the skin against buckling. Spars, ribs, and stringers also
comprise the substructure of horizontal and vertical
stabilizers.
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The landing gear ranks as one of the substructures most

crucial to aircraft performance during the periods
between touchdown and takeoff. Retractable landing gear
are among the most complex of the mechanical systems
on a modem airplane.
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The landing gear must be able to absorb several times the

entire gross weight of the airplane-without undue shock
to the airframe or its contents-while comprising less than
10 percent of the structural weight.

Furthermore, it must quickly fold up into a compact

space in the wing or fuselage for storage during flight
and must as quickly and reliably deploy for landing. A
key structural component of a landing gear is an
oleopneumatic shock absorber, or oleo strut, which is
there to ease the loads on the airframe during landings
and to cushion impact.
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Corrosion protection-a matter of concern throughout an

airframe-is clearly required for the undercarriage.

The landing gear attachment points (spars and bulkhead

ribs on the wing, frames and beams in the fuselage) must
be "hard," that is, designed to absorb the 'concentrated
load and distribute it efficiently into the less massive
surrounding structure.
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The same is true where engines are attached to the

airframe. These structures must resist the weight and
moment of the powerplant, as well as the thrust, torsion,
and vibration it produces. As with landing gear, there is a
huge variety of engine mounts. The design clearly
depends on the kind of engine it supports (piston,
turboprop, turbojet) and the position where the engine is
mounted. Jet engines are invariably attached to the
airframe at just three points, by means of a support
system that is statically determinate. This ensures that
airframe deflections cannot transfer to the engine and that
thermal expansion of the engine can occur freely. It also
means the engine can be removed and installed quickly.
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Engines mounted inside the fuselage attach directly to the

fuselage framework via links and trunnions. Those
mounted below the wings or on the aft fuselage are
housed in protective streamlined nacelles and are
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fastened to pylons that in turn are joined to the wing or

fuselage structure. The pylons are builtup, stiffened-web
structures, or truss structures, or perhaps a combination
of the two.
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Finally, a quick word on aircraft materials. The main

groups of materials used in modern aircraft construction
have been aluminum alloys and steel alloys with, more
recently, titanium alloys, and fiber-reinforced
composites. In gas turbine engine design, titanium alloys
are used in the early stages of a compressor while nickel-
based alloys or steels are used for the hotter later stages.
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