What is fuselage?

  • (noun): The central body of an airplane that is designed to accommodate the crew and passengers (or cargo).

Fuselage

The fuselage (/ˈfjuːzəlɑːʒ/; from the French fuselé "spindle-shaped") is an aircraft's main body section that holds crew and passengers or cargo. In single-engine aircraft it will usually contain an engine, although in some amphibious aircraft the single engine is mounted on a pylon attached to the fuselage which in turn is used as a floating hull. The fuselage also serves to position control and stabilization surfaces in specific relationships to lifting surfaces, required for aircraft stability and maneuverability.

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Some articles on fuselage:

Lockheed Martin X-55 - Design and Development
... is a one-off aircraft intended to demonstrate the use of advanced composite materials in the fuselage of an otherwise conventional high-wing transport aircraft ... The fuselage of that aircraft, which is constructed of aluminum alloys, was replaced aft of the entrance door with a newly-designed fuselage ... The new widened fuselage allows the loading of cargo through a rear ramp ...
Slingsby Eagle - Development
... with nearly 18 m span, three-part wings and a large fuselage with spacious comfortable cockpits ... The fuselage is built up as a wooden truss with a plywood-covered stressed-skin top decking and wooden semi-monocoque forward fuselage ... constant thickness/chord ratio centre section sits atop the fuselage out to approx 1/5 span each side where the tapering outer wings are fitted, with the leading edge unswept ...
Sopwith Snail - Development and Design
... two aircraft with a plywood monocoque fuselage ... The first prototype, serial number C4284, with the conventional fuselage (which resulted in the designation Snail Mk.II) flew in April 1918 ... Vickers machine guns mounted within the fuselage, and a Lewis gun mounted above the upper wing ...
Fuselage - Gallery
... a doorway opening Rough Boeing 747 interior airframe The fuselage can be short, and seemingly unaerodynamic, as in this Christen Eagle Glider fuselage schematic ...
Loening C-2
... unconventional design, with a tall, narrow fuselage that nearly filled the interplane gap ... The pilot (and sometimes one passenger) sat in an open cockpit at the top of the fuselage, with the engine mounted in front of them ... Underneath the fuselage was a long "shoehorn"-style float, that extended forward underneath the engine and propeller ...