Abstract: Fuselage skin lap splice for aircraft formed of metal or composite skin panels. The adjacent skin panels comprise an outer skin and an inner skin, having contacting overlapping longitudinal edge portions, and a plurality of fasteners connecting such overlapping edge portions. A plurality of outwardly extending fingers are integrally connected along the edge portion of the inner skin and at least one longitudinal row of fasteners passes through the fingers and connects the outer skin and the fingers. Preferably the fingers are lollipopped, that is, have one or more protrusions thereon. The fingers at the end of the inner skin are flexible and soften and the load transfer through the fasteners, reducing the peak bearing stress and increasing the fatigue life of the splice. Alternatively, the desired flexibility at the end of the inner skin can be achieved by providing a plurality of large holes near the edge of the inner skin rather than by the provision of the fingers having apertures therebetween.

Abstract: A joint for joining composite material such as segments of the skin 12 and 13 of an aircraft. Tapered splice plates 30 and 31 overlap the ends 14 and 15 of the skin. The thickest portion 34 of the splice plates overlap the ends 14 and 15. The splice plates are clamped together on the skin segments 12 and 13 by fasteners 50, 52, 54 and 56. The tapered splice plates are designed to minimize load transfer at the outermost bolt row 56 coincident with maximum bypass stress in the skin segments while simultaneously maximizing load transfer in both the skin segments and splice plates at the innermost bolt row 50.