Geodetic airframe

A section of the rear fuselage from a Vickers Warwick showing the geodetic construction in duralumin. On exhibit at the Armstrong & Aviation Museum at Bamburgh Castle.
Left-handed helix and Right-handed helix
Vickers Wellingtons under construction, showing the geodetic airframe

A geodetic airframe is a type of construction for the airframes of aircraft developed by British aeronautical engineer Barnes Wallis in the 1930s (who sometimes spelt it "geodesic"). Earlier, it was used by Professor Johann Schütte, in partnership with Dr Karl Lanz, for the Schütte Lanz Airship SL 1 in 1909. It makes use of a space frame formed from a helical left-handed and a helical right-handed crossing basket-weave of load-bearing members. The principle is that two geodesic arcs can be drawn to intersect on a curving surface (the fuselage) in a manner that the torsional load on each cancels out that on the other.

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