Definition
A structural dividing wall inside an aircraft that is installed at an angle rather than perpendicular to the aircraft's long axis. Canted bulkheads are commonly used as the rear pressure bulkhead in pressurized aircraft and as firewalls or mounting structures where an angled face better suits load paths, engine geometry, or fuselage shape.
Plain English
A wall inside the aircraft that is built on a slant instead of straight up and down. The slant is deliberate -- it helps the wall handle pressure or fit the shape of the fuselage better.
Context Anchor
Seen in aircraft structure, maintenance, inspection, and repair discussions, especially when describing internal supports in the aircraft body.
Derivation
Canted' comes from an old word meaning tilted or set at an angle. 'Bulkhead' is a nautical term for an internal dividing wall in a ship, carried over into aircraft construction. So a canted bulkhead is simply a tilted internal wall.
Why Pilots Care
Knowing the airframe has a canted pressure bulkhead helps pilots understand where the pressurized cabin ends, which matters for inspections, damage assessment, and understanding how cabin pressure loads are carried by the structure.
Intuition Check
Do not read canted as meaning accidentally bent. Here it means deliberately built at an angle.
Example Sentence 1
The aft pressure bulkhead on this aircraft is canted forward at the top, which helps distribute cabin pressure loads into the tail structure.
Example Sentence 2
Mechanics inspected the rivets along the canted bulkhead for signs of fatigue.