The general idea of making aircraft of single-shell or monocoque construction is not new. In the middle ages, the great English philosopher and man of science, Roger Bacon, “conceived of a large hollow globe made of very thin metal and filled with ethereal air or liquid fire, which would float on the atmosphere like a ship on water,” and ever since the inception of the aeroplane, suggestions have been made to construct aircraft wings and fuselages in the form of shells like those of crabs, lobsters or other popular crustacea.

There is at present, a marked trend in aeroplane construction towards the increasing use of metal covering both for wings and fuselages. The water loads on the hulls and floats of various aircraft have always necessitated the use of a robust skin, and although at first wood was commonly used, this was at an early stage of development, replaced by metal.