Geodetic airframe

A section of the rear fuselage from a Vickers Warwick showing the geodetic construction in duralumin. On exhibit at the Armstrong & Aviation Museum at Bamburgh Castle.

A geodetic airframe is a type of construction for the airframes of aircraft developed by British aeronautical engineer Barnes Wallis in the 1930s (who sometimes spelt it "geodesic"). Earlier, it was used by Prof. Schütte for the Schütte Lanz Airship SL 1 in 1909.[1] It makes use of a space frame formed from a spirally crossing basket-weave of load-bearing members.[2] The principle is that two geodesic arcs can be drawn to intersect on a curving surface (the fuselage) in a manner that the torsional load on each cancels out that on the other.[3]

  1. ^ Nowarra, Heinz J. (1988). Deutsche Luftschiffe: Parseval - Schütte - Lanz - Zeppelin (in German). Friedberg: Ponzun-Pallas-Verlag. ISBN 978-3-7909-0332-4. Retrieved 2 December 2018.
  2. ^ Buttler, p.93
  3. ^ Buttler, p.94