ABSTRACT

There is a wide utilization of cold forming of sheet metal for producing traditional fuselage structures of an aircraft. These structures are made mainly from aluminum and titanium alloys due to weight concerns. Titanium alloys generally have poor formability at room temperature so must be hot formed. Aluminum alloy sheet products have more reasonable formability at room temperature so can be cold formed (formed without external heat). Signicant numbers of aircraft components are produced mainly from the 2xxx and 7xxx series wrought aluminum alloy sheet products. As discussed in Chapter 6, the fuselage structure has three major components including an exterior skin along with an interior skeleton of frames and stringers. Various cold forming processes have been developed to produce the fuselage components. The wing and empennage use sheet product only for the leading edge and trailing edge details with the structural box consisting of machined plate and extrusion products.