Aviation Word of the Day - Fuselage

Fuselage of an Airbus A380

 

We might have come across the word maybe once or twice, and for my fellow enthusiasts, on several occasions. If you’re a movie fanatic like me, you may have heard the word fuselage in chart topping movies like the Aviator, Con Air, Nowhere to land, just to mention a few. In simple terms, the fuselage is the body of the aircraft. It is the structure to which all the other exterior parts of the aircraft are attached. That is, the entire wing assembly, the empennage or tail, as well as the engines of the aircraft.

 

 

Early aircraft fuselages were made of wood. The most common metals used in aircraft construction are aluminum, magnesium, titanium, steel, and their alloys. The modern fuselage is made of an alloy called Duralumin comprising metals like aluminum, Nickel and Cobalt; in most huge aircrafts. The materials used for the construction of the fuselage is dependent on the purpose of which the aircraft is intended for, be it for the carriage of passengers, cargo or for recreational purposes. Because the heavier the fuselage (materials it’s made of) the weight it will have and as such, the more fuel the aircraft will burn.

 

The fuselage is in fact the structural framework or the supporting structure to all the other parts of an aircraft. The fuselage on huge commercial jets houses passengers, baggage, cargo and mail, depending on the aircraft type and configuration. Therefore, depending on the size of the fuselage, we can say that the plane as big or small, because the fuselage is the body of the aircraft.

So the next time you look high in the sky to watch an aircraft in flight, note that what you see is the body of the aircraft known as the fuselage.