Definition
A form of aircraft construction in which the outer skin carries a major portion of the flight loads, working together with the underlying framework rather than acting only as a covering. The skin and the internal structure (such as ribs, stringers, frames, and bulkheads) share the loads as a single load-bearing unit.
Plain English
An aircraft built so that the outside surface itself helps hold the airplane together and carry the loads of flight, instead of just being a thin cover wrapped around an internal frame.
Context Anchor
Seen in aircraft construction, preflight inspection, and maintenance discussions about dents, cracks, loose fasteners, and approved repairs.
Derivation
From 'stressed' (carrying stress or load) and 'skin' (the outer surface of the aircraft). The name describes the idea directly: the skin is stressed, meaning it is doing structural work, not just sitting there.
Why Pilots Care
Damage to the skin can reduce the airframe's ability to carry flight loads and may require immediate grounding or repair.
Analogy
A thin drink can gets much of its strength from its outer wall. If that wall is dented or cut, the whole can can lose strength; a stressed-skin aircraft uses the same basic idea in a much more carefully designed way.
Intuition Check
Do not read stressed as “worried” or “strained past its limit.” Here, stressed means the skin is intentionally carrying force as part of the aircraft’s strength.
Example Sentence 1
Most modern metal airplanes use stressed-skin structure, so any wrinkle or buckle in the skin is treated as a structural concern.
Example Sentence 2
After the hail encounter the mechanic checked the stressed-skin structure for dents that could weaken the load path.