Aircraft with interchangeable fuselage

An aircraft with interchangeable sections of fuselage, said aircraft comprising:

• a basic fuselage having a longitudinal centerline and including a cockpit with controls, a wing structure and flight propulsion means, said basic fuselage having an internal load-bearing structure and an external skin and including at at least one end thereof a transverse, generally planar bulkhead and a structurally integral tongue axially extending from the bottom of said basic fuselage beyond said bulkhead;
• a set of at least two fuselage sections each having an internal load-bearing structure and an external skin and a transverse, generally planar bulkhead at a mating end thereof, each said section being interchangeably connectable at the mating end thereof to the one end of said basic fuselage and being so shaped to complete the aerodynamic configuration at said one end of said aircraft, said sections being adapted to operatively support different mission-specific equipment;
• first means for structurally connecting each said section with said one end, said first connecting means comprising notch means at the bottom of each said section for matingly receiving said tongue in supporting engagement with the load-bearing structure thereof, coupling means for defining and supporting each said section in predetermined mated relation with the one end of said basic fuselage, said coupling means including a radially-spaced array of elongated coupling elements fixed to the load-bearing structure of and axially extending through the bulkhead of one of said basic fuselage and sections and a radially-spaced array of elongated receiving elements fixed to the load-bearing structure of and open for cooperatively receiving said coupling elements through the bulkhead of the other of said basic fuselage and sections, said coupling and receiving elements cooperating to progressively align said sections with said one end during movement of said sections toward said one end and to support said sections in said mated relation, and means radially spaced from said coupling means for fixing said sections to said one end;
• and
• second means for operatively connecting said sections to said one end, said second connecting means comprising male and female electrical connectors mounted in cooperative relation in the respective bulkheads of said sections and said basic fuselege, at least one of said electrical connectors being resiliently mounted to accommodate six degrees of misalignment with said other electrical connector during movement of said sections into mated relation.