A
geodesic (or
geodetic)
airframe is a type of construction for the
airframes of
aircraft developed by
British aeronautical engineer
Barnes Wallis in the 1930s. It makes use of a
space frame formed from a spirally 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.