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Modern aircraft are held together by thousands of machined metal parts, from the frames hidden behind cabin panels to the fittings that connect a wing to the fuselage. When engineers and buyers ask what parts can be produced through aerospace CNC machining for aircraft structures, the honest answer is: nearly every load-bearing metal component in the airframe. Milling, turning, grinding, and wire EDM cover an enormous range of geometries, materials, and tolerance bands, which is why CNC machining remains the default process for structural aerospace work.
This article walks through the main categories of aircraft structural parts that CNC machining produces, the materials and processes behind them, and the quality requirements a supplier must meet before any of these parts are allowed to fly.
In aerospace engineering, the "structure" of an aircraft usually refers to the airframe: the fuselage, wings, empennage, landing gear, and engine mounts, plus the fittings that join them. Engineers divide these into primary structure, which carries flight and ground loads and whose failure would be catastrophic, and secondary structure, such as brackets, fairings supports, and system mounting hardware.
Primary structural parts demand the most from machining: high-strength alloys, thin-wall monolithic designs, and tolerances that are commonly held to ±0.0005 in (about ±0.013 mm) or tighter on critical features. That combination is exactly where multi-axis CNC machining excels.
The fuselage is essentially a stiffened shell, and most of its stiffening elements are machined:
These parts are typically pocket-milled from large aluminum billets (7075-T6, 7050, or 2024) as monolithic parts, replacing older built-up assemblies. A large share of the starting material is machined away to leave thin ribs and walls, so dimensional stability and distortion control during machining are critical.
Wings concentrate some of the highest loads on the aircraft, and their internal structure is heavily machined:
Because wing parts combine large overall dimensions with thin walls and tight flatness requirements, they are a classic application for 5 axis CNC machining services, where complex pocketing and multi-face features are completed in fewer setups.
Landing gear is where machining, grinding, and surface treatment meet. Typical CNC-machined landing gear parts include:
These parts see extreme cyclic loads, so they are commonly made from high-strength steels such as 300M, precipitation-hardening stainless steels (15-5 PH, 17-4 PH), or Ti-6Al-4V. Shops experienced in titanium CNC machining have a real advantage here, because titanium's strength-to-weight ratio makes it a preferred landing gear material but a demanding one to cut.
The structure that carries the engines must survive thrust, vibration, and heat at the same time. Machined parts in this group include engine mount frames and cones, thrust links, nacelle brackets, and engine discs. Titanium and nickel-based alloys such as Inconel 718 dominate the hotter zones, while high-strength aluminum and steel appear in cooler regions. Five-axis machining is usually required to produce the sculpted, weight-optimized geometries these parts use.
Beyond the headline structural members, an aircraft carries thousands of smaller machined parts that mount systems to the structure:
Individually small, these parts still demand full material traceability and consistent tolerances, and they are often produced in the low-to-medium volumes where CNC machining is most economical.
Unmanned aircraft rely on CNC machining even more heavily than crewed aircraft, because their structures are compact and highly integrated. Typical machined UAV parts include airframe frames and bulkheads, motor mounts, payload rails, gimbal brackets, and landing skids, usually in 6061 or 7075 aluminum with occasional titanium and PEEK for special requirements.
| Material | Typical Structural Uses | Why It Is Chosen |
| 7075-T6 / 7050 aluminum | Wing ribs, spars, bulkheads, frames | High strength-to-weight ratio |
| 6061-T6 aluminum | Seat frames, secondary brackets, UAV structures | Good corrosion resistance, easy to machine |
| 2024 aluminum | Fatigue-critical fuselage structure | Strong fatigue performance |
| Ti-6Al-4V titanium | Landing gear, engine mounts, pylon fittings | Strength at temperature, corrosion resistance |
| 17-4 PH / 15-5 PH stainless steel | Landing gear fittings, shafts, pins | High strength with corrosion resistance |
| Inconel 718 | Engine-adjacent structure, hot-zone hardware | Retains strength at high temperature |
| Magnesium alloys | Housings where minimum weight matters | Lightest structural metal |
No single machine makes an aircraft. Structural production typically combines several processes:
Aerospace structural machining is defined as much by its quality system as by its machines. Structural parts commonly hold tolerances around ±0.0005 in, with engine and fuel-system features going tighter still. Buyers should expect a qualified supplier to work within an aerospace-grade quality framework – AS9100 quality management, AS9102 First Article Inspection, full material traceability with mill test certificates, and compliance with airworthiness expectations from regulators such as the FAA and EASA. Environmental and structural testing expectations such as MIL-STD-810G may also apply to defense programs.
At ANOK Precision Manufacturing, our machining centers hold tolerances down to ±0.002 mm with surface finishes to Ra 0.2, under an ISO 9001:2015 certified quality system. Our aerospace work covers couplers, retainer rings, guidance fins, flanges, aircraft seat frames, control valve housings, engine mounts, engine discs, landing gear components, structural wing parts, and precision drone components – produced on 4-axis and 5-axis machining centers, CNC turning up to 520 mm diameter and 3600 mm length, wire EDM, and surface grinding, with in-house coating and surface treatment for a true one-stop service.
From fuselage bulkheads and wing ribs to landing gear struts, engine mounts, and the thousands of fittings in between, CNC machining produces the great majority of metal structural parts on a modern aircraft. The keys to sourcing them well are a supplier with genuine multi-axis capability, experience in aerospace alloys like titanium and Inconel, and a quality system built for traceability. If you have structural parts ready for quotation, send your drawings to ANOK – our engineering team will respond with a DFM review and a competitive quote.