In mechanical engineering, stressed skin is a rigid construction in which the skin or covering takes a portion of the structural load, intermediate between monocoque, in which the skin assumes all or most of the load, and a rigid frame, which has a non-loaded covering. Typically, the main frame has a rectangular structure and is triangulated by the covering; a stressed skin structure has localized compression-taking elements and distributed tension-taking elements (skin).
The Zeppelin-Lindau D.I had stressed skin fuselage and wings.
Internals of stressed skin construction on Murphy Moose showing frames and supporting skin
Section from the original Britannia Bridge, showing top and bottom stressed-skin construction
Worker carrying partially finished Deperdussin Monocoque fuselage, c. 1912
Monocoque, also called structural skin, is a structural system in which loads are supported by an object's external skin, in a manner similar to an egg shell. The word monocoque is a French term for "single shell".
Deperdussin Monocoque, with wooden shell construction
LFG Roland C.II with wooden Wickelrumpf monocoque fuselage
Zeppelin D.I, the first production all-metal monocoque aircraft
1981 McLaren MP4/1, with a carbon fiber composite monocoque
