The objective of this study is to attempt a comparative evaluation of aerodynamic features of a conventional aircraft fuselage and those of a specially developed high lift generating (HLG) fuselage. This work is directed towards attainment of substantially higher lift coefficients, needed for future generations of transport aircraft with short take-off and landing capabilities (STOL). The conve...

A preliminary study of structural concepts for noncircular fuselage configurations is presented. For an unconventional flying-wing type aircraft, in which the fuselage is inside the wing, multiple fuselage bays with non-circular sections need to be considered. In a conventional circular fuselage section, internal pressure is carried efficiently by a thin skin via hoop tension. If the section is...

A 1/5-scale model composite fuselage concept for light aircraft and rotorcraft has been developed to satisfy structural and flight loads requirements and to satisfy design goals for improved crashworthiness. The 1/5-scale model fuselage consists of a relatively rigid upper section which forms the passenger cabin, a stiff structural floor, and an energy absorbing subfloor which is designed to li...

The focus of this paper is to describe a crash simulation of a 30-ft/s vertical drop test of a Boeing 737 (B737) fuselage section. The drop test of the 10-ft. long fuselage section of a B737 aircraft was conducted in November of 2000 at the FAA Technical Center in Atlantic City, NJ. The fuselage section was outfitted with two different commercial overhead stowage bins. In addition, 3,229-lbs. o...

This paper shows the unique characteristics and disadvantages of an aircraft of the classical single-fuselage scheme. It provides an overview of the aircraft built according to the twin-fuselage configuration. The brief description of Airbus 320 series and Boeing 737 series is given in this paper, as well as their inflight performance. The article shows the distinctive characteristics of the si...

In this paper, the possibility of using the static charge that accumulates on aircraft during flight as a source to power monitoring sensors is examined. The assessed methods include using a pair of materials with different air-flow charging rates, contact discharging of the fuselage to neutral metallic bodies, charge motion induction by the fuselage field and inductive harvesting of fuselage-t...

A 25-ft/s vertical drop test of a composite fuselage section was conducted with two energy-absorbing seats occupied by anthropomorphic dummies to evaluate the crashworthy features of the fuselage section and to determine its interaction with the seats and dummies. The 5-ft. diameter fuselage section consists of a stiff structural floor and an energy-absorbing subfloor constructed of Rohacel foa...

The present study presents a new methodology developed for an analytical model of a composite fuselage. It also presents finite element analyses of a simplified model and comparisons with more complete models. These comparisons show that there is a very good correlation between both models for the cases studied. Therefore, the applicabilty of the proposed procedure was demonstrated. Based on fi...

Conventional commercial aircraft fuselages use all-aluminium semi-monocoque structures where the skin carries the external loads, the internal fuselage pressurization and is strengthen using frames and stringers. Environmental and economic issues force aircraft designers to minimize weight and costs to keep air transport competitive and safe. But as metal designs have reached a high degree of p...

Structural analysis and design of efficient pressurized fuselage configurations for the advanced BlendedWing-Body (BWB) flight vehicle is a challenging problem. Unlike a conventional cylindrical pressurized fuselage, stress level in a box type BWB fuselage is an order of magnitude higher, because internal pressure primarily results in bending stress instead of skin-membrane stress. In addition,...