Fuselage Introduction

Introduction

The Fuselage is one of the fundamental components in OpenVSP and is obviously useful in modeling aircraft fuselages as the name implies. However, the uses of this powerful component are not limited to aircraft fuselage-like bodies. A Fuselage component is also equally useful in modeling rockets and launch vehicles, ballistic or powered projectiles, entry vehicles, nacelles, engine internals, nozzles, wind tunnels, pipes, tubes, pins, and rods… the applications are as numerous as they are varied.

One of the more common applications is to model an aircraft fuselage when the total fuselage length is known and the cross-sections are placed relative to that total length. For example, in an aircraft three-view drawing, typically the fuselage length is given but the dimensions of individual cross-sections are not.