ABSTRACT
Input raw materials and their shapes required for fabricating different components of an aircraft are produced by using various manufacturing processes. Specic processes used depend on the material, geometry, size, and allowable properties to satisfy various engineering needs for each component. Initial raw materials are classied mainly by various product shapes including at sheet, bars, plates, beams, pipes and tubes, solid, and hollow extrusions. Different manufacturing principles and processes are involved to make the input product shapes. As discussed in Chapter 3, a high volume of aluminum alloy products have been commonly used in building aircraft for many years, since the development of the rst passenger aircraft model DC-3 by the Douglas Company in 1935 in the United States. Aluminum alloy products mostly in the form of at sheet, plate, extrusion, forging, and drawn tubes satised the engineering requirements and the economics of aircraft manufacturing for many decades. This changed when Boeing introduced high volume usage of carbon ber composite materials in commercial aircraft manufacturing, with the all-new 787-8, which entered service in October, 2011. Figure 4.1 shows a pie chart of usage of different aluminum wrought products in a typical pre-787 airplane model.
