Patent ID: 8039115

Claim:
A metallic aircraft component, comprising: at least two metal sheets are connected to one another by means of a weld seam made as a butt joint, wherein a centerline of a join line of the weld seam is predetermined by an outer edge contour of the metal sheets connected to one another at respective edge contours and, deviating from a continuously straight line shape, wherein changes in direction increasing a total length of the weld seam are provided periodically at the two edge contours of the metal sheets engaging into one another in complementary manner wherein a periodically formed edge contour with amplitude A has a wavelength λ in the range of 0.1≦A/λ≦2 and the weld seam is formed such that, changes in direction of the weld seam within a join zone, occur in a manner that a path extending in a straight line across the join zone has a length Lmax which is smaller than a quotient of a critical crack length a c specific to the component and an improvement factor, s that corresponds to a degree of improvement in damage tolerance of the weld seam as compared to damage tolerance of a continuous straight line weld seam formed when the two metal sheets are welded together in the continuous straight line weld seam with a same joining method as the weld seam.