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• December 13, 2015 Create Date
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Global cost and weight evaluation of fuselage side panel design concepts

1.0 SUMMARY

This report documents preliminary design trades conducted for a subsonic wide body commercial
aircraft fuselage side panel section utilizing composite materials. This work was performed
during the time period from September 1992 to February 1994 under NASA contracts
NASl-18889 (Advanced Technology Composite Aircraft Structures, ATCAS) and NASl-19349
(Task 3, Pathfinder Shell Design).

Included in this effort were (a) development of two complete design concepts, (b) generation of
thorough cost and weight estimates for both designs, (c) identification of technical issues and
potential design enhancements, and (d) selection of a single design to be further developed
during subsequent structural and manufacturing process optimization. The first design concept
featured an open-section stringer stiffened skin configuration while the second was based on
honeycomb core sandwich construction. To provide a reference for the composite designs, a
comparable metallic fuselage structure was also developed.

The trade study cost and weight results were generated from comprehensive assessment of each
structural component comprising the fuselage side panel section from detail fabrication through
airplane final assembly. ACT program groundrules were followed to assure consistency with
past work performed. Results were obtained in three phases: (1) for the baseline designs, (2)
after global optimization of the designs, and (3) the results anticipated after detailed design
optimization. The estimated cost and weight for each concept considered after this final step are
provided in Table 1-1 relative to the metallic baseline.