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AE684
Structural System

Light Airplane

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Airplane components

Airplane components
Most airplane structures include a
fuselage, wings, an empennage,
landing gear, and a powerplant.
The wings are airfoils attached to each
side of the fuselage and are the main
lifting surfaces that support the
airplane in flight

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Airplane components
The empennage includes the entire tail
group, consisting of fixed surfaces
such as the vertical stabilizer and the
horizontal stabilizer. The movable
surfaces include the rudder, the
elevator, and one or more trim tabs.

Airplane components
The fuselage includes the cabin and/or
cockpit and space for payload and
controls.
The landing gear is the principal
support of the airplane when parked,
taxiing, taking off, or when landing.
The most common type of landing
gear consists of wheels, but airplanes
can also be equipped with floats for
water operations, or skis for landing
on snow.

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Powerplant
The primary function of the engine is to
provide the power to turn the propeller
and generating electrical power.
The engine is covered by a cowling, or in
the case of some airplanes, surrounded by
a nacelle. This streamlines the flow of air
around the engine and to help cool the
engine by ducting air around the
cylinders.

Powerplant
The propeller,
mounted on
the front of the
engine
provides thrust
that helps
move the
airplane
through the
air.

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Powerplant
On singlesingle-engine airplanes, the engine
is usually attached to the front of the
fuselage. There is a fireproof
partition between the rear of the
engine and the cockpit or cabin to
protect the pilot and passengers
from accidental engine fires.
This partition is called a firewall and is
usually made of heatheat-resistant
material such as stainless steel.

Undercarriage(Landing gear)
The landing gear consists of three
wheels two main wheels and a
third wheel positioned either at the
front or rear of the airplane.
Airplanes with conventional landing
gear(employing a rear mounted
wheel) are called tailwheel airplanes.
Airplanes with a nosewheel(third
wheel is located on the nose) are
referred to as having a tricycle
landing gear.

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Undercarriage(Landing gear)
A steerable nosewheel or tailwheel
permits the airplane to be controlled
throughout all operations while on
the ground.
When an aircraft lands, a large force is
generated on the undercarriage as it
meets the ground. To prevent
damage to the structure, this shock
must be absorbed and dissipated as
heat by the undercarriage.

Braking after touchdown

Disc brakes, which are primarily used,
consist of a disc or a series of discs,
gripped between pads of friction
material.
The braking of an aircraft can be
supplemented by other forms of
braking, such as air brakes, causing
a large increase in drag, or reverse
thrust, thrusting air forward.

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Landing Gear

Fuselage
The word Fuselage is based on the French
word fuseler, which means "to streamline."
The fuselage is the foundation of an airplane
and carries the useful payload (passengers
and cargo) and the controls for the
airplane.
Fuselage is the central attachment point for
the wings, tail and engines. It needs to be
strong enough to support the loads
imposed under all flight conditions.

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Fuselage
The majority of the fuselages have a semisemimonocoque construction with a cylindrical
or nearnear-cylindrical middle section with
tapered nose and tail sections.
Construction is of a stressed skin type with
added stringers to prevent buckling,
attached to hoophoop-shaped frames.
These supports are called frames if they are
open or ringring-shaped, or bulkheads if they
are closed.

Fuselage

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Truss--type fuselage
Truss
Cross-bracing members are employed
Crossto improve strength and rigidity.
Bars, beams, rods and wires have also
been employed historically instead of
tubings.

Fuselage-- Truss Type

Fuselage

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Improvement in fuselage design

As technology progressed, aircraft
designers began to enclose the truss
members to streamline the airplane
and improve performance.
This was originally accomplished with
cloth fabric, which eventually gave
way to lightweight metals such as
aluminum.

Improvement in fuselage
design(monocoque design)
The monocoque design uses stressed
skin to support almost all imposed
loads.
This structure can be very strong but
cannot tolerate dents or deformation
of the surface.
Since no bracing members are
present, the skin must be strong
enough to keep the fuselage rigid.

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Monocoque design
True monocoque
construction
mainly consists
of the skin,
formers, and
bulkheads.
The formers and
bulkheads
provide shape
for the fuselage.

Monocoque Fuselage

Very often, monocoque type of fuselage

is constructed by riveting two
preformed halves together.

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Semi--Monocoque design
Semi
The semisemi-monocoque system uses a
substructure to which the airplane
airplanes
skin is attached.
The substructure consists of bulkheads
and/or formers of various sizes.
The substructure also employes
stringers(longerons) which reinforce
the stressed skin by taking some of
the bending stress from the fuselage.

Fuselage Types

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Semi--monocoque construction
Semi
The longerons also serve to stiffen skin
ans prevent it from bulging or
buckling under stress.

Semi--monocoque construction
Semi
Since the external skin is working part of
the structure this type of construction is
known as stressed skin or semisemimonocoque.
Improvement in manufacturing technology
led to reduction in the manufacturing cost
of thin skins with good surface finish,
superior material properties and possibility
of riveting which would overcome the
adhesive problems of early wooden semisemimonocoque aircraft

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Structural parts of the wing

The principal structural parts of the
wing are spars, ribs, and stringers.

Structural parts of the wing

The wing ribs determine the shape
and thickness of the wing (airfoil)

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Sections

L, C, U, hat shapes can be formed

Other shapes such as 'T' ,'I' and 'H'
sections cannot be formed because
of branching at the joints

Types of wing
A wing spar (also called a wing beam)
is a principal spanwise member of
the wing structure.
The monospar has only one spar while
a twotwo-spar wing has two spars.
A multispar wing has more than two
spars.

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Types of spar

Ribs
A Rib is a chordwise member of the
wing structure used to give the
shape to the wing section and also to
transmit the airloads from the
covering to the spars.

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Ribs
Ribs support the skin (prevent
buckling) and separate the individual
fuel tanks within the wing. They
serve as attachment points for the
control surfaces, flaps,undercarriage
and engines.
Form ribs consist of a sheet of metal,
bent into shape.

Ribs
Plate-type ribs consist of sheetPlatesheet-metal,
which has upturned edges and
weight--saving holes cut out into it.
weight
These ribs are used in conditions of
light to medium loading.
Truss ribs consist of profiles that are
joined together.

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Ribs

Spars and Ribs

The ribs are supported by the spars.
Spars are simple beams that usually
have a crosscross-section similar to an IIbeam.
The spars are the most heavily loaded
parts of an aircraft.

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Stressed skin construction

Reinforced Stressed skin construction

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Empennage

Horizontal Stabilizer

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