Patent ID: 8173055

Claim:
A method for forming an aircraft fuselage barrel comprising a skin, a plurality of shear ties positioned within and integrally formed with the skin, and a plurality of longerons positioned within and integrally formed with the skin, the method comprising: assembling a plurality of mold rings each comprising a plurality of modules circumferentially coupled to each other to form the mold rings, each of the modules comprising an outer fuselage forming surface having longeron shaped grooves extending from one side edge of the modules to the other side edge of the modules; laying up a first shear tie onto a first circumferential edge of a first mold ring; laying up a second shear tie onto a first circumferential edge of a second mold ring; forming a mold from the mold rings by stacking the second mold ring onto the first mold ring such that the second shear tie is axially pressed between the first mold ring and the second mold ring and aligning the longeron shaped grooves in each of the mold rings; inserting at least one of the longerons into the longeron shaped grooves; and laying up the skin on the mold over the longerons and the first shear tie to integrally form the fuselage barrel.