Desain pesawat selama beberapa dekade telah semakin ramping. Tetapi sejarah telah menunjukkan desain pesawat telah berkembang dari berbagai model guna meningkatkan kinerja dan menurunkan biaya pembangunan dan operasional.
Berikut beberapa pesawat yang telah menjadi pengubah model pesawat pada dekade mereka masing-masing.
1912 – Deperdussin Monocoque
This racing aircraft built by France’s Aeroplanes Deperdussion, later to become famous as SPAD, pioneered the light, strong and streamlined monocoque fuselage, formed of thin plywood layers over a circular frame. The Monocoque won the Gordon Bennett
1916 – Albatros D.III
The Albatros series of biplane fighters flown by Germany in World War I featured semi-monocoque fuselages, in which load-bearing plywood skin panels were glued to longitudinal longerons and internal bulkheads. As metal replaced wood, the term semi-monocoque gave way to stressed skin, and remains the prevalent aircraft structural configuration.
1919 – Junkers F13
Germany’s Hugo Junkers flew the revolutionary J1—an experimental all-metal, cantilever-wing, stressed-skin monoplane—in 1915. The steel J1 was followed in 1919 by the Duralumin F13 (pictured), the first all-metal transport aircraft. More than 300 were built. Also flown in 1919 was the sole example of the Zeppelin-Stakken E-4/20, the first four-engine, all-metal passenger aircraft.
1929 – Hall XFH
Built in the U.S. by Hall Aluminum and flown in 1929, the XFH naval fighter prototype (pictured) was the first aircraft with a riveted metal fuselage—a watertight aluminum skin over steel tubing. Hall also pioneered flush rivets and butt joints between skin panels in the PH flying boat, which first flew in 1929.
