Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The central body of an aircraft, to which the wings and tail assembly are attached and which accommodates the crew, passengers, and cargo.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Aëronautics) The central, approximately cylindrical portion of an airplane which carries the passengers, crew, and cargo. It usually forms the main structural portion of an airplane, and to it are typically attached the wings, tail, and sometimes the engines. In single-propeller airplanes, the propeller is typically fixed at the front of the fuselage, although variants have been produced with the propeller at the rear. Some airplanes have no fuselage, properly so called.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun The main body of a winged aerospace vehicle; the long central structure of an aircraft to which the wings (or rotors), tail, and engines are attached, and which accommodates crew and cargo

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun the central body of an airplane that is designed to accommodate the crew and passengers (or cargo)

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[French, from fuselé, spindle-shaped, from Old French fusel, spindle, from Vulgar Latin *fūsellus, diminutive of Latin fūsus.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From French fuselage, from fuselé ("spindle-shaped"), from Old French *fus (“spindle”), from Latin fusus ("spindle"). So named for its shape; in English since 1909.

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Examples

  • One example: an enormous aircraft whose fuselage is actually a full-sized detachable passenger bus, so that when the plane lands, the travelers can simply continue on a road trip without ever having to exit the airplane.

    Predictions that Never Came True | Impact Lab 2006

  • Plus the rest of the fuselage is built in Witchita and Charleston SC.

    Sound Politics: Boeing Ascendant, Airbus Reeling 2006

  • Its fuselage is made by Bombardier's subsidiary in Northern Ireland, Shorts of Belfast.

    Britain in Europe 1996

  • The fuselage is fully air-conditioned for maximum comfort, and is pressurized so that when you are travelling at 30,000 ft., the equivalent pressure in the cabin is only 4,000 ft. altitude.

    The Aircraft Industry in Canada and the Future Development of Jet Engines 1948

  • The - 800's fuselage is shortened by 10 frames (six forward and four aft), which McConnell says requires changes to the geometry of section 13/14 (forward), section 16/18 (rear) and the upper shell of section 15 (centre fuselage).

    HEADLINES 2010

  • The - 800's fuselage is shortened by 10 frames (six forward and four aft), which McConnell says requires changes to the geometry of section 13/14 (forward), section 16/18 (rear) and the upper shell of section 15 (centre fuselage).

    HEADLINES 2010

  • The - 800's fuselage is shortened by 10 frames (six forward and four aft), which McConnell says requires changes to the geometry of section 13/14 (forward), section 16/18 (rear) and the upper shell of section 15 (centre fuselage).

    HEADLINES 2010

  • a part of a fuselage from a missile fired by North Korea was found in Alaska in 1999.

    Think Progress » Preemptive Strike On North Korea Is ‘Ill-Conceived’ and ‘Factually-Flimsy’ 2006

  • Roberts wonders if the remains beneath the fuselage are her brother's.

    Remains Returned List WWII 2009

  • He calls the fuselage a "chassis" and the front cowling a "hood," as if Spirit were an earthbound automobile.

    When Lindy Dared 2010

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