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Monocoque Fuselage Design

semi-monocoque- monocoque-fuselage

Monocoque Fuselage Design:

Monocoque fuselage design relies on the strength of the skin (also known as the shell or covering) to carry the various loads. True monocoque construction does not use formers, frame assemblies, or bulkheads to give shape to the fuselage. Instead, the skin carries all fuselage stresses. Since no bracing members are present, the skin must be strong enough to keep the fuselage rigid. Thus, the biggest challenge in monocoque design is maintaining enough strength while keeping the weight within allowable limits. The advantage of a monocoque design is that it is relatively easy to manufacture.Despite this advantage, the weight penalty makes it impractical and inefficient to use monocoque construction except in relatively small areas of the fuselage that carry only limited loads. To overcome the strength-to-weight problem of monocoque design, a modification called semimonocoque design was developed and is widely used on aircraft such as all Boeing Commercial Aircraft like the 737