Patent attributes
An aircraft nacelle and method of fabricating a monolithic lipskin of the nacelle. The nacelle may include a fan cowl, a bulkhead, and the monolithic lipskin. The lipskin may be formed by spin-forming or explosive forming an annularly-shaped plate onto a mandrel, and machining or chemically-milling integrated stiffeners or other protrusions and attachment tabs into an inner mold line (IML) of the lipskin. The machining or chemical milling may occur before or after the spin-forming or explosive forming. The stiffeners may have a spiral or circumferential configuration. An attachment tab extending from the IML may attach to the bulkhead, such that an outer mold like (OML) of the lip-skin is not disrupted by mechanical fasteners attaching the lipskin to the bulkhead.
