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Aviation glossary

Fuselage

Also: aircraft body, fuselage structure

The aircraft

Main body of an aircraft, carrying the crew, passengers and cargo, to which the wings, tail and landing gear are attached.

What it is

The fuselage is the aircraft's central structure. On an airliner it is usually a tube of near-circular cross-section, built from frames (transverse rings), stringers (longitudinal stiffeners) and a skin of aluminium alloy or, on the newest designs, carbon-fibre composite. A tube is the natural shape for containing cabin pressure, which at cruising altitude is far higher than the pressure outside.

Its diameter determines how many seats fit across each row and whether there is room for one aisle or two, the line that separates narrow-bodies from wide-bodies. Its length largely sets capacity, which is why manufacturers so often offer stretched or shortened versions of the same fuselage. The Boeing 787 and Airbus A350 are examples of airliners whose fuselages are built largely from composites.

On Vuelopedia

A model page on Vuelopedia lists the aircraft's overall length and typical passenger capacity, two figures driven mainly by the fuselage.

Boeing 787 Dreamliner Airbus A350 XWB

Related terms

Narrow-bodyAirliner with a single cabin aisle and typically four to six seats per row; the most common type on short and medium-haul routes. Wide-bodyAirliner with two cabin aisles and usually seven to ten seats per row in economy; the dominant type on long-haul routes. PressurisationSystem that keeps the air pressure inside an aircraft higher than outside, so that passengers and crew can breathe normally at high altitude. VariantVersion of an aircraft model that keeps the basic design but changes features such as length, engines, range or intended role. WingSurface that generates the lift needed for flight; on airliners it usually also holds much of the fuel and carries the engines.
Whole glossary

Cite

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This page was last updated on October 9, 2026

APA

Vuelopedia. (2026, October 9). Fuselage. Retrieved October 16, 2026, from https://vuelopedia.org/en/glossary/fuselage

MLA

“Fuselage.” Vuelopedia, Fundación Poderia, 9 Oct. 2026, vuelopedia.org/en/glossary/fuselage. Accessed 16 Oct. 2026.

Chicago

Vuelopedia. “Fuselage.” Fundación Poderia. Last modified October 9, 2026. https://vuelopedia.org/en/glossary/fuselage.

Harvard

Vuelopedia (2026) Fuselage. Available at: https://vuelopedia.org/en/glossary/fuselage (Accessed: 16 October 2026).

BibTeX

@misc{vuelopedia_en_glossary_fuselage,
  author       = {{Vuelopedia}},
  title        = {{Fuselage}},
  publisher    = {Fundación Poderia},
  year         = {2026},
  date         = {2026-10-09},
  url          = {https://vuelopedia.org/en/glossary/fuselage},
  howpublished = {\url{https://vuelopedia.org/en/glossary/fuselage}},
  urldate      = {2026-10-16},
  note         = {Accessed 2026-10-16}
}

Wikipedia

{{cite web |url=https://vuelopedia.org/en/glossary/fuselage |title=Fuselage |website=Vuelopedia |publisher=Fundación Poderia |date=2026-10-09 |access-date=2026-10-16 |language=en}}

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