Development of pressure containment and damage tolerance technology for composite fuselage structures in large transport aircraft

NASA sponsored composites research and development programs were set in place to develop the critical engineering technologies in large transport aircraft structures. This NASA-Boeing program focused on the critical issues of damage tolerance and pressure containment generic to the fuselage structure of large pressurized aircraft. Skin-stringer and honeycomb sandwich composite fuselage shell designs were evaluated to resolve these issues. Analyses were developed to model the structural response of the fuselage shell designs, and a development test program evaluated the selected design configurations to appropriate load conditions.