The Main Aircraft Skin Material

 Aircraft skin materials refer to the dimension-shaped components enclosed outside the skeleton structure of the aircraft. It can be regarded as the "skin" of the aircraft and is an important part of the aerodynamic structure of the aircraft.

Early aircraft also used materials such as linen, cloth, canvas, etc. to make the skin of the aircraft. However, the current aircraft generally adopts metal skin because of its structural strength, including the aerodynamic load it bears. The performance of aluminum alloy is very good like lightweight and stable properties, so most of the current military aircraft and civil aircraft in the world use aluminum alloy for the manufacture of aircraft skins.

The aluminum alloys used in large aircraft structures in the world today are mainly high-strength 2xxx series (2024, 2224, 2324, 2424, 2524, etc.) and ultra-high-strength 7xxx series (7075, 7475, 7050, 7150, 7055, 7085, etc.). Their proportion in civil passenger aircraft is about 38% and 45% respectively.

2000 series aluminum alloys use Cu as the main alloying element, which will have better improvement in strength, heat resistance and processing performance, and can maintain good strength stability and process performance at high temperature, which is mainly used in aerospace high-temperature resistant parts.

2024 aluminum is a typical hard aluminum alloy in the aluminum-copper-magnesium series. Its composition is more effective and its comprehensive performance is good. After heat treatment, 2024 aluminum alloy undergoes solid solution treatment to obtain relatively high compressive strength and ductility. Due to its high strength, it is generally used to produce skins, beams, bulkheads, and wings.

7000 series aluminum alloys use Zn as the main additive element. The toughness of the aluminum alloy is strengthened by heat treatment. The addition of Mg element can improve the hot deformation performance and expand the quenching range. 7000 series aluminum alloys are high-strength weldable alloys with high stress corrosion sensitivity.

7050 aluminum plate is an aircraft aluminum sheet that combines high strength, resistance to stress corrosion cracking, and toughness. It has low quench sensitivity and strength retention in thicker sections, making it especially suitable for thick plate applications (3" to 6" thick). Therefore, 7050 aluminum alloy sheet is the first choice for fuselage frame, bulkhead and wing skin.

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