Design and Technology Development for a Composite Standard Body Fuselage

The goal of the DLR’s “Black Fuselage” project is to reduce the weight of the standard fuselage of a passenger aircraft by 30% and to cut its costs by 40% by using CFRP. In particular, higher safety standards in case of impact and crash are to be attained with the new structure. A CFRP design concept for a fuselage that takes into consideration the above-mentioned goals is discussed and a corresponding manufacturing method is presented here. Some of these construction ideas were displayed by a full-scale demonstrator that was presented at the International Aerospace Exhibition in Berlin in 2002 (ILA 2002)