Aerospace Simplified Blog

With every component that comes together to create an aircraft, it is actually one of the smallest components, the fastener, that remains one of the most important parts to the entirety of the structure. A Boeing 747-800, for example, is comprised of 6 million parts, half of them being fasteners. Much like a fastener that one may find at a hardware store, the part’s functionality at its most basic is to join or affix two or more components together in a non-permanent fashion so that the objects could be later separated. Unlike their hardware store counterparts, however, aviation fasteners are held to a much higher standard, and are specifically engineered with precise specifications to ensure they withstand the demands of high altitude flight. Fasteners are important beyond holding components together, also providing the benefit of taking on and redistributing structural loads.