Aircraft Structure

Aircrafts are built to meet certain specified requirements. These requirements must be selected so they can be built into one aircraft. It is not possible for one aircraft to possess all characteristics; just as it isn’t possible for an aircraft to have the comfort of a passenger transport and the maneuverability of a fighter. The type and class of the aircraft determine how strong it must be built. A Navy fighter must be fast, manoeuvrable, and equipped for attack and defence. To meet these requirements, the aircraft is highly powered and has a very strong structure. The airframe of a fixed-wing aircraft consists of the following five major units:

1. Wings
2. Fuselage
3. Stabilizers
4. Flight control surfaces
5. Landing gear

A rotary-wing aircraft consists of the following four major units:

1. Fuselage
2. Landing gear
3. Main rotor assembly
4. Tail rotor assembly

Identify the five basic stresses acting on an aircraft. The primary factors to consider in aircraft structures are strength, weight, and reliability.

These factors determine the requirements to be met by any material used to construct or repair the aircraft. Airframes must be strong and light in weight. An aircraft built so heavy that it couldn’t support more than a few hundred pounds of additional weight would be useless. All materials used to construct an aircraft must be reliable. Reliability minimizes the possibility of dangerous and unexpected failures.

Many forces and structural stresses act on an aircraft when it is flying and when it is static. When it is static, the force of gravity produces weight, which is supported by the landing gear. The landing gear absorbs the forces imposed on the aircraft by takeoffs and landings. During flight, any manoeuvre that causes acceleration or deceleration increases the forces and stresses on the wings and fuselage. Stresses on the wings, fuselage, and landing gear of aircraft are tension, compression, shear, bending, and torsion. These stresses are absorbed by each component of the wing structure and transmitted to the fuselage structure.

The empennage (tail section) absorbs the same stresses and transmits them to the fuselage. These stresses are known as loads, and the study of loads is called a stress analysis. Stresses are analyzed and considered when an aircraft is designed. TENSION is defined as pull. It is the stress of stretching an object or pulling at its ends. Tension is the resistance to pulling apart or stretching produced by two forces pulling in opposite directions along the same straight line. For example, an elevator control cable is in additional tension when the pilot moves the control column. COMPRESSION if forces acting on an aircraft move toward each other to squeeze the material, the stress is called compression.

Compression is the opposite of tension. Tension is pull, and compression is push. Compression is the resistance to crushing produced by two forces pushing toward each other in the same straight line. For example, when an airplane is on the ground, the landing gear struts are under a constant compression stress. SHEAR cutting a piece of paper with scissors is an example of a shearing action. In an aircraft structure, shear  is a stress exerted when two pieces of fastened material tend to separate. Shear stress is the outcome of sliding one part over the other in opposite directions. The rivets and bolts of an aircraft experience both shear and tension stresses.

Bending is a combination of tension and compression. For example, when bending a piece of tubing, the upper portion stretches (tension) and the lower portion crushes together (compression). The wing spars of an aircraft in flight are subject to bending stresses. Torsional stresses result from a twisting force. When you wring out a chamois skin, you are putting it under torsion. Torsion is produced in an engine crankshaft while the engine is running. Forces that produce torsional stress also produce torque.

All structural members of an aircraft are subject to one or more stresses. Sometimes a structural member has alternate stresses; for example, it is under compression one instant and under tension the next. The strength of aircraft materials must be great enough to withstand maximum force of varying stresses.

You need to understand the stresses encountered on the main parts of an aircraft. A knowledge of the basic stresses on aircraft structures will help you understand why aircraft are built the way they are. The fuselage of an aircraft is subject the five types of stress—torsion, bending, tension, shear, and compression. Torsional stress in a fuselage is created in several ways. For example, torsional stress is encountered in engine torque on turboprop aircraft. Engine torque tends to rotate the aircraft in the direction opposite to the direction the propeller is turning. This force creates a torsional stress in the fuselage

Bending increases when the aircraft makes a carrier landing. This bending action creates a tension stress on the lower skin of the fuselage and a compression stress on the top skin. Bending action is shown in. These stresses are transmitted to the fuselage when the aircraft is in flight. Bending occurs because of the reaction of the airflow against the wings and empennage.  The five stresses acting on an aircraft. Aircraft is in flight, lift forces act upward against the wings, tending to bend them upward. The wings are prevented from folding over the fuselage by the resisting strength of the wing structure. The bending action creates a tension stress on the bottom of the wings and a compression stress on the top of the wings.

Aircrafts have different body designs based on their fuselage size, Light aircrafts are ones who have a takeoff weight of less than 12,500 lbs and heavy aircrafts are ones who have a takeoff weight of 12,501 lbs or more.

Heavy aircrafts are broken down into either a single aisle aircraft or a double aisle aircraft and are respectively called narrow body aircrafts and wide body aircrafts.