Month in the Patent Office

Abstract

Skin‐stressed aircraft bodies, hulls, or floats comprise a shell composed of a number of channel section strips assembled in sets with the channel flanges projecting inwardly, each set constituting a section of the skin and connected to the adjacent set by securing together outwardly directed flanges formed on or fixed to the marginal strips of the sets. A monocoque fuselage 1, Fig. 1, of substantially oval section tapering in width to the rear end 5 and provided with an engine supporting frame at the forward end, is divided at 10 into two parts, of which the forward is built up in two sections 22, 23 joined in a horizontal plane 24 and the after part is built up from sections 2, 3, Fig. 3, joined in the plane of symmetry. The latter sections each comprise a half‐bulkhead 2a, 3a respectively to which channel strips 6 are secured by engagement of side flanges 6a in peripheral slots 7 and by welding. The abutting flanges 6a of the several strips are additionally interconnected by riveting along their length. The half‐bulkheads together with their attached channel strips are interconnected by engagement of a rod 9 in tubular lugs 8 formed alternately on the edges of the parts 2a, 3a, and also by riveting or bolting together the marginal pairs of channel strips. These may be formed with up‐turned abutting flanges 11 which are faired by a split tube 13 slidden or otherwise engaged therewith. Adjacent fuselage parts may be interconnected by riveting or otherwise securing juxtaposed bulk‐heads. The channel strips 6 are shaped to correspond with the longitudinal changes in section of the fuselage and may be reduced in gauge toward the tail or be of varying gauge to suit localized stresses. In a modification in which annular frames 16 of channel or box‐section are substituted for bulk‐heads, Fig. 10, the flanges 6a of channels 6 are inwardly bent at 6b to rest on the frames and attachment is by angle members 17, of which one limb is secured to flanges 6a and one to a side wall of frame 16. Fig. 11 shows modified channel member, the flanges of which form on assembly a series of longitudinal stiffeners, 6c. Attachment to frame 16 is by bent‐up fittings 22 secured to the flanges by bolts 24 which connect them together.