Paragon Purchasing Blog

When assembling an aircraft, there are a multitude of fasteners that come together to maintain the structural integrity of the airframe and other parts. At their most basic, fasteners are a type of hardware component that joins two or more materials or parts in a permanent or non-permanent fashion. Types of fasteners can include screws, nuts, bolts, clamps, rivets, and more. When securing the body of an aircraft, fastening a crankshaft, or joining other system components together, various types of rivets are used due to their fastening properties. In this blog, we will discuss the various types of rivets, and how they are used for aircraft.

Despite the many differences with commercial, private and military aircraft, the same principle of flight generally applies with each vessel. A helicopter works similarly in that it is able to take flight thanks to the various many components that make up the vessel.

Anchor nuts are captive nuts that do not require an ordinary hex nut to tighten an aircraft bolt. They are used when it is nearly impossible to work on the backside of a piece you are bolting. When certain part installation makes hex nut usage unattainable, anchor nuts are the go-to alternative to bolting a piece together from one side only. It is not unusual for a typical all-metal homebuilt aircraft to have more than two to three hundred anchor nuts installed to reach assembly completion.

Why do some aircraft feature a small vertical section at the tip of their wings? Well, those upturned tips are called winglets, additions to the wing that are designed to prevent vortices from forming. In this blog, we’ll explore what winglets are, and why they are so important.

A fixed-wing aircraft is an aircraft that achieves flight by using wings to produce lift. They are called “fixed-wing” because their wings are stationary, as opposed to rotary-wing aircraft, which generate lift by rapidly spinning rotors or blades. To work properly, the wings of an aircraft have to attach to a structure. In the case of fixed-wing aircraft, the aircraft wings are attached to the body of the aircraft, known as the fuselage. There are three types of fixed-wing aircraft fuselage structures: Truss, Monocoque, and Semimonocoque.