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 , in partnership with Dr , 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.