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=== Postwar ===
=== Postwar ===


Postwar commercial airframe design focused on [[airliner]]s, on [[turboprop]] engines, and then on [[Jet engine]]s : turbojets and later turbofans. The generally higher speeds and [[tensile stress]]es of turboprops and jets were major challenges.<ref>{{cite book |author= Charles D. Bright |title= The Jet Makers: the Aerospace Industry from 1945 to 1972 |publisher= Regents Press of Kansas |year=1978 |url= http://www.generalatomic.com/jetmakers/index.html }}</ref> Newly developed [[aluminum]] [[alloy]]s with [[copper]], [[magnesium]] and [[zinc]] were critical to these designs.<ref>{{cite book |work= Key to Metals Database |title= Aircraft and Aerospace Applications |publisher= INI International |year= 2005 |url= http://www.key-to-metals.com/PrintArticle.asp?ID=96 }}</ref>
Postwar commercial airframe design focused on [[airliner]]s, on [[turboprop]] engines, and then on [[Jet engine]]s : turbojets and later turbofans. The generally higher speeds and [[tensile stress]]es of turboprops and jets were major challenges.<ref>{{cite book |author= Charles D. Bright |title= The Jet Makers: the Aerospace Industry from 1945 to 1972 |publisher= Regents Press of Kansas |year=1978 |url= http://www.generalatomic.com/jetmakers/index.html }}</ref> Newly developed [[aluminum]] [[alloy]]s with [[copper]], [[magnesium]] and [[zinc]] were critical to these designs.<ref>{{cite book |work= Key to Metals Database |title= Aircraft and Aerospace Applications |publisher= INI International |year= 2005 |url= http://www.key-to-metals.com/PrintArticle.asp?ID=96 |deadurl= yes |archiveurl= https://web.archive.org/web/20060308194218/http://www.key-to-metals.com/PrintArticle.asp?ID=96 |archivedate= 2006-03-08 |df= }}</ref>


Flown in 1952 and designed to cruise at Mach 2 where [[skin friction]] required its [[heat]] resistance, the [[Douglas X-3 Stiletto]] was the first [[titanium]] aircraft but it was underpowered and barely [[supersonic]]; the Mach 3.2 [[Lockheed A-12]] and [[Lockheed SR-71|SR-71]] were also mainly titanium, as was the cancelled [[Boeing 2707]] Mach 2.7 [[supersonic transport]].<ref name=AW161121/>
Flown in 1952 and designed to cruise at Mach 2 where [[skin friction]] required its [[heat]] resistance, the [[Douglas X-3 Stiletto]] was the first [[titanium]] aircraft but it was underpowered and barely [[supersonic]]; the Mach 3.2 [[Lockheed A-12]] and [[Lockheed SR-71|SR-71]] were also mainly titanium, as was the cancelled [[Boeing 2707]] Mach 2.7 [[supersonic transport]].<ref name=AW161121/>

Revision as of 11:22, 22 January 2018

For the novel by Michael Crichton, see Airframe (novel).
Airframe diagram for an AgustaWestland AW101 helicopter

The airframe of an

propulsion system. Airframe design is a field of aerospace engineering that combines aerodynamics, materials technology and manufacturing methods to achieve balances of performance, reliability and cost.[1]

History

4 types of Airframe construction 1. Truss with canvas 2. Truss with corrugate plate 3. Monocoque construction 4. Semi-monocoque construction

Modern airframe history began in the United States when a 1903 wood biplane made by Orville and Wilbur Wright showed the potential of fixed-wing designs.

In 1912 the Deperdussin Monocoque pioneered the light, strong and streamlined monocoque fuselage formed of thin plywood layers over a circular frame, achieving 210 km/h (130 mph).[2][3]

First World War

Many early developments were spurred by

monoplanes
. These used hybrid wood and metal structures.

In 1916 the German Albatros D.III biplane fighters featured semi-monocoque fuselages with load-bearing plywood skin panels glued to longitudinal longerons and bulkheads ; it was replaced by the prevalent stressed skin structural configuration as metal replaced wood.[2]

German engineer Hugo Junkers first flew all-metal airframes in 1915 with the all-metal, cantilever-wing, stressed-skin monoplane Junkers J 1 made of steel.[2] It developed further with lighter weight duralumin in the airframe of the Junkers D.I of 1918, whose techniques were adopted almost unchanged after the war by both American engineer William Bushnell Stout and Soviet aerospace engineer Andrei Tupolev.

Between World wars

The J1 was followed in 1919 by the first all-metal transport aircraft, the

Atlantic by Charles Lindbergh in 1927. William Stout designed the all-metal Ford Trimotors in 1926.[4]

The

flush rivets and butt joints between skin panels in the Hall PH flying boat also flying in 1929.[2] Based on the Italian Savoia-Marchetti S.56, the 1931 Budd BB-1 Pioneer experimental flying boat was constructed of corrosion-resistant stainless steel assembled with newly developed spot welding by U.S. railcar maker Budd Company.[2]

The original Junkers corrugated duralumin-covered airframe philosophy culminated in the 1932-origin

Donald Douglas' firm's developed the iconic Douglas DC-3 twin-engined airliner in 1936.[5]
They were among the most successful designs to emerge from the era through the use of all-metal airframes.

In 1937, the Lockheed XC-35 was the first aircraft specifically constructed with cabin pressurization to underwent extensive high-altitude flight tests, paving the way for the first pressurised transport aircraft, the Boeing 307 Stratoliner.[3]

geodesic airframe
construction and the level of punishment it could withstand while maintaining airworthiness

Second World War

During

P-38 Lightning, and British Vickers Wellington that used a geodesic construction method, and Avro Lancaster, all revamps of original designs from the 1930s. The first jets
were produced during the war but not made in large quantity.

Due to wartime scarcity of aluminum, the

F28.[2]

Postwar

Postwar commercial airframe design focused on

aluminum alloys with copper, magnesium and zinc were critical to these designs.[7]

Flown in 1952 and designed to cruise at Mach 2 where

SR-71 were also mainly titanium, as was the cancelled Boeing 2707 Mach 2.7 supersonic transport.[2]

Because heat-resistant titanium is hard to weld and difficult to work with, welded

nickel steel was used for the Mach 2.8 Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-25 fighter, first flown in 1964; and the Mach 3.1 North American XB-70 Valkyrie used brazed stainless steel honeycomb panels and titanium but was cancelled by the time it flew in 1964.[2]

Northrop Grumman B-2 Spirit.[2]

Modern era

Rough interior of a Boeing 747 airframe
spar

Bombardier and Embraer lead the regional airliner market; many manufacturers produce airframe components.[relevant?
]

The vertical stabilizer of the

A380 in 2005.[2]

The Cirrus SR20, type certificated in 1998, was the first widely produced general aviation aircraft manufactured with all-composite construction, followed by several other light aircraft in the 2000s.[8]

The

wing aspect ratio and higher cabin pressurization; the competing Airbus A350, flown in 2013, is 53% carbon-fiber by structure weight.[2] It has a one-piece carbon fiber fuselage, said to replace "1,200 sheets of aluminum and 40,000 rivets."[9]

The 2013

electron beam additive manufacturing from Sciaky, Inc..[10]

Safety

Airframe production has become an exacting process. Manufacturers operate under strict quality control and government regulations. Departures from established standards become objects of major concern.[11]

DH106 Comet 3 G-ANLO demonstrating at the 1954 Farnborough Airshow

A landmark in aeronautical design, the world's first

metal fatigue, causing a series of widely publicised accidents. The Royal Aircraft Establishment investigation at Farnborough Airport
founded the science of aircraft crash reconstruction. After 3000 pressurisation cycles in a specially constructed pressure chamber, airframe failure was found to be due to stress concentration, a consequence of the square shaped windows. The windows had been engineered to be glued and riveted, but had been punch riveted only. Unlike drill riveting, the imperfect nature of the hole created by punch riveting may cause the start of fatigue cracks around the rivet.

The

Braniff Flight 542 showed the difficulties that the airframe industry and its airline customers can experience when adopting new technology
.

The incident bears comparison with the Airbus A300 crash on takeoff of the American Airlines Flight 587 in 2001, after its vertical stabilizer broke away from the fuselage, called attention to operation, maintenance and design issues involving composite materials that are used in many recent airframes.[12][13][14] The A300 had experienced other structural problems but none of this magnitude.

See also

Notes and references

  1. ^ Michael C. Y. Niu (1988). Airframe Structural Design. Conmilit Press LTD.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Graham Warwick (Nov 21, 2016). "Designs That Changed The Way Aircraft Are Built". Aviation Week & Space Technology.
  3. ^ a b c Richard P. Hallion (July 2008). "Airplanes that Transformed Aviation". Air & space magazine. Smithsonian.
  4. ^ David A. Weiss (1996). The Saga of the Tin Goose. Cumberland Enterprises.
  5. ^ Peter M. Bowers (1986). The DC-3: 50 Years of Legendary Flight. Tab Books.
  6. ^ Charles D. Bright (1978). The Jet Makers: the Aerospace Industry from 1945 to 1972. Regents Press of Kansas.
  7. ^ Aircraft and Aerospace Applications. INI International. 2005. Archived from the original on 2006-03-08. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  8. ^ "Top 100 Airplanes:Platinum Edition". Flying. November 11, 2013. p. 11.
  9. ^ Leslie Wayne (May 7, 2006). "Boeing Bets the House on Its 787 Dreamliner". New York Times.
  10. ^ Graham Warwick (Jan 11, 2017). "Airbus To 3-D Print Airframe Structures". Aviation Week & Space Technology.
  11. ^ Florence Graves and Sara K. Goo (Apr 17, 2006). "Boeing Parts and Rules Bent, Whistle-Blowers Say". Washington Post. Retrieved April 23, 2010.
  12. ^ Todd Curtis (2002). "Investigation of the Crash of American Airlines Flight 587". AirSafe.com.
  13. James H. Williams, Jr. (2002). "Flight 587"
    . Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
  14. ^ Sara Kehaulani Goo (Oct 27, 2004). "NTSB Cites Pilot Error in 2001 N.Y. Crash". Washington Post. Retrieved April 23, 2010.
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