Simviation Forum - Passenger Airliner Cross-Sections

Mar 3^rd, 2008 at 3:13am

Xyn_Air Offline
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Hey all you aircraft buffs,

I am wondering if anyone can tell me which passenger airliners have a perfectly circular fuselage cross-section for the majority of their length.

So far, the aircraft that I think I have found that have a circular cross-section are:

For Narrow-Body Jets:
Airbus A320
Boeing 757
Douglas DC-8

For Wide-Body Jets:
???

If someone can help confirm for me or direct me to where I might quickly find out, I am hoping that the Airbus A320 fuselage is circular in cross-section (versus oval, elliptical, or some other non-circular shape). I am planning to make a large, scale model from scratch, but the materials I presently have require something that is perfectly circular in cross-section.

Any helpful suggestions?

Thanks in advance,
Darrin

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Reply #1 - Mar 6^th, 2008 at 1:57pm

chornedsnorkack Offline
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Posts: 363

Xyn_Air wrote on Mar 3^rd, 2008 at 3:13am:

Hey all you aircraft buffs,

I am wondering if anyone can tell me which passenger airliners have a perfectly circular fuselage cross-section for the majority of their length.

So far, the aircraft that I think I have found that have a circular cross-section are:

For Narrow-Body Jets:
Airbus A320
Boeing 757
Douglas DC-8

Actually, none of them.

A narrowbody I found which does have circular cross-section is BAC 1-11
Xyn_Air wrote on Mar 3^rd, 2008 at 3:13am:

For Wide-Body Jets:
???

DC-10/MD-11 definitely. The whole Airbus 300/310/330/340 family definitely. Boeing 777 definitely. Tristar probably.
Xyn_Air wrote on Mar 3^rd, 2008 at 3:13am:

If someone can help confirm for me or direct me to where I might quickly find out, I am hoping that the Airbus A320 fuselage is circular in cross-section (versus oval, elliptical, or some other non-circular shape). I am planning to make a large, scale model from scratch, but the materials I presently have require something that is perfectly circular in cross-section.

Any helpful suggestions?

Thanks in advance,
Darrin

Typical non-circular cross-sections are, I gather, double-bubbles - two circles intersecting at floor.

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Reply #2 - Mar 6^th, 2008 at 5:42pm

Xyn_Air Offline
Colonel
If I flap my arms fast
enough, I can fly!
Minot, North Dakota

Gender:
Posts: 621

chornedsnorkack wrote on Mar 6^th, 2008 at 1:57pm:

Xyn_Air wrote on Mar 3^rd, 2008 at 3:13am:

Hey all you aircraft buffs,

I am wondering if anyone can tell me which passenger airliners have a perfectly circular fuselage cross-section for the majority of their length.

So far, the aircraft that I think I have found that have a circular cross-section are:

For Narrow-Body Jets:
Airbus A320
Boeing 757
Douglas DC-8

Actually, none of them.

A narrowbody I found which does have circular cross-section is BAC 1-11
Xyn_Air wrote on Mar 3^rd, 2008 at 3:13am:

For Wide-Body Jets:
???

DC-10/MD-11 definitely. The whole Airbus 300/310/330/340 family definitely. Boeing 777 definitely. Tristar probably.
Xyn_Air wrote on Mar 3^rd, 2008 at 3:13am:

If someone can help confirm for me or direct me to where I might quickly find out, I am hoping that the Airbus A320 fuselage is circular in cross-section (versus oval, elliptical, or some other non-circular shape). I am planning to make a large, scale model from scratch, but the materials I presently have require something that is perfectly circular in cross-section.

Any helpful suggestions?

Thanks in advance,
Darrin

Typical non-circular cross-sections are, I gather, double-bubbles - two circles intersecting at floor.

Thanks for replying. I am a tad confused, however. Could you help me a little further by telling me a good place to get aircraft dimension information? That would be great! Unfortunately, what limited information I have led me to believe the aircraft I mentioned above have circular cross-sections down the main length of their fuselages.

For example, I thought the variance between fuselage height and width of the Airbus A320 was at or less than 0.01m (that is, 1cm or less!).

Anyway, the best thing would be general schematics or diagrams. I really would appreciate any further help you can offer.

Thanks again,
Darrin

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Reply #3 - Mar 7^th, 2008 at 5:34am

chornedsnorkack Offline
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I love YaBB 1G - SP1!

Posts: 363

Douglas aircraft from DC-8 are described by Boeing in various levels of detail. For example, DC-10:

http://www.boeing.com/commercial/airports/acaps/dc10sec2.pdf

The Boeing links are collected at:

http://www.boeing.com/commercial/airports/plan_manuals.html

Embraer publishes their aircraft descriptions likewise. For example, ERJ135, whose fuselage is exact circle:

http://www.aerochain.com/pls/techpubs/docs/FOLDER/AEROCHAINTP/APM/ERJ_135_APM/AP...

However, the links seem scattered around the descriptions of planes, not collected together. E-jets are not exact circles (they are double bubbles).

Airbus is harder. As they say on
http://www.airbus.com/en/aircraftfamilies/a380/a380/

Quote:

The A380 Airport Planning manual, which is issued for the A380-800 passenger aircraft and A380-800F freighter, provides preliminary data needed by airport operators and airlines for airport facilities planning. This manual is available for downloading as a .pdf file. [11.6 Mb]

Other A380 documentation, including the Maintenance Facility Planning Manual, Recommendations for airport accommodation, and Airport compatibility overview are available for consultation through the Airbus customer portal, Airbus|World, which can be accessed at: www.airbusworld.com. These documents are located under the "Fix" category, under the Technical Data Support and Services link.

PLEASE NOTE: Access to this portal is limited to authorized users only. To obtain access, please sign up to Airbus|World at www.airbusworld.com.

The A380 manual is freely linked and freely accessible. However, unlike the Boeing manual, it claims to be secret on its first page.

The other manuals likewise claim to be secret - and they are not linked anywhere. However, if you guess the link, you can enter freely - you are not asked to log in when following a link.

So, if you are minded to respect the Airbus secrecy, refrain from following the links below.
A320 can be found at:
http://www.content.airbusworld.com/SITES/Technical_Data/docs/AC/DATA_CONSULT/AC_...

A320 fuselage width is 395 cm, height 414 cm.

A330, by contrast, is an exact circle.

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Reply #4 - Mar 8^th, 2008 at 12:08am

Xyn_Air Offline
Colonel
If I flap my arms fast
enough, I can fly!
Minot, North Dakota

Gender:
Posts: 621

Wow! Thanks for the info, Chorned! That should keep me busy for awhile!

In gratitude,
Darrin

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