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Old 26th February 2011 | 21:19
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Mechta
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The Wellington had external stringers to give a smooth surface for airflow. Despite the incredible ability to absorb battle damage, geodesic construction was dropped on later designs as fabric ripple at speeds over 300mph increased drag.

This gives a pretty good idea of the structure:

Wellington cutaway image by chris7421 on Photobucket

It appears that there were spars, longerons and formers, although they look smaller than one would expect to find on a semi-monocoque structure.

I made an experimental geodesic leading edge for a large, ultra-lightweight UAV using 0.6mm pultruded carbonfibre rod. The resulting structure was very stiff and weighed almost nothing. It is definitely worth revisiting for appropriate applications.

Honeycomb structures use the inner and outer skins to transmit loads. The honeycomb converts gives each skin depth to resist buckling. I would say that they are quite different.
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