An aircraft comprises a forward-facing aircraft section including composite aircraft skin and a substructure for the skin. The substructure includes a plurality of hoop-shaped composite frames. The frames are designed to deflect elastically under bird impact loads.

An assembly method includes a succession of assembly steps of assembling fuselage components of the fuselage portion of the aircraft, for example the nose of the aircraft, to form a fuselage body, a mounting step of introducing, into the fuselage body thus formed, a floor module having at least a predetermined width, and which can be provided with items of equipment, and a fastening step of fastening the fuselage body to the floor module such that the floor module shapes the final shape of the fuselage body and the assembled fuselage portion is obtained, the floor module, which has at least a suitable predetermined width, making it possible, when it is incorporated into the fuselage body, to provide the fuselage body, which is slightly flexible, with its desired and definitive shape corresponding to the desired and definitive shape of the assembled fuselage portion.

Systems, methods, and aircraft for managing center of gravity (CG) while transporting large cargo are described. Management of CG is achieved in many ways. In some instances, the aircraft itself is designed to assist in managing CG by providing fuel tanks that minimize the impact of fuel on the net CG of the aircraft. The fuel tanks utilize only a small amount of available volume in the wings for fuel. Disclosures related to properly managing CG while loading wind turbines onto cargo aircraft are also provided. The CG management techniques provided for herein allow for the transportation of wind turbine blades via aircraft, running counter to the typical rail or truck transportation of the same. One such management technique includes accounting for how a rotation of the blades when loading impacts the CG of the blades, and thus taking this into account when placing the blades in the aircraft.

A method for the assembly of an aircraft fuselage, to a fuselage manufacturing station and to a construction kit includes providing a pre-assembled cockpit unit, a pre-assembled wing box, a pre-assembled tail unit and a plurality of pre-fabricated fuselage shell segments. Furthermore, the method involves positioning the cockpit unit, the wing box and the tail unit. Moreover, a first front fuselage shell segment is positioned on a front connecting region of the wing box, and a first rear fuselage shell segment is positioned on a rear connecting region of the wing box. The first front fuselage shell segment is joined to a second front fuselage shell segment, and the first rear fuselage shell segment is joined to a second rear fuselage shell segment. As a result of the above, following the assembly of the aircraft fuselage an aircraft fuselage can be provided that already comprises equipment elements or functional elements.

A structural arrangement for an elongated nose region of a rotary-wing aircraft, including a nose structure that comprises an outer shell with a first shell section and a second shell section arranged diametrically opposed thereto; a first frame; a second frame that is longitudinally spaced apart from the first frame; at least two longitudinal beams which extend on the second shell section between the first frame and the second frame; at least one nose structure floor supported by the at least two longitudinal beams inside of the nose structure; and a center wall that is arranged between the nose structure floor 360 and the first shell section and that extends from the first frame to the second frame.

In order to allow an aircraft fuselage structure to provide optimum resistance to pressurization loads in a fuselage region with a double curvature, the fuselage structure includes a circumferential frame oriented so that the web of the circumferential frame has an orientation close to the local normal to the skin of the fuselage.

Systems, methods, and aircraft for managing center of gravity (CG) while transporting large cargo are described. Management of CG is achieved in many ways. In some instances, the aircraft itself is designed to assist in managing CG by providing fuel tanks that minimize the impact of fuel on the net CG of the aircraft. The fuel tanks utilize only a small amount of available volume in the wings for fuel. Disclosures related to properly managing CG while loading wind turbines onto cargo aircraft are also provided. The CG management techniques provided for herein allow for the transportation of wind turbine blades via aircraft, running counter to the typical rail or truck transportation of the same. One such management technique includes accounting for how a rotation of the blades when loading impacts the CG of the blades, and thus taking this into account when placing the blades in the aircraft.

A method of delivering heavy payload using an autonomous UAV able to deliver supply by way of airdrop with more precision and at a lower cost. The UAV is equipped with two movable wing systems that rotate from a stowed position to a deployed position upon jettison of the UAV from a mothership. The UAV can be controlled remotely or it can operate autonomously and the movable wings can include ailerons to effectuate flight control of the UAV. The UAV can be reusable or can be an expendable UAV.

A flight vehicle may include a vehicle body and a nose tip assembly coupled to the vehicle body. The nose tip assembly may include a nose body, a nose body cavity disposed in the nose body, and a thermal feature array disposed within the nose body cavity. The nose tip assembly may also include a sealing assembly configured to couple the vehicle body and the nose tip assembly. The nose tip assembly may include a nose material having a nose coefficient of thermal expansion within about 1% to about 5% of a vehicle body coefficient of thermal expansion. The nose material may also or alternatively have a nose stiffness being within about 1% to about 5% of a vehicle body stiffness.