Abstract
Crashworthiness of fiber reinforced polymer composites is classified based on how they deform, fail and dissipate the energy in a controllable manner. Fuselage shapes were manufactured from hybrid glass/epoxy and cotton/epoxy layers. The effects of the test speed and fiber orientation were investigated. The results showed that significant effects of cotton fiber/epoxy layers on the crushing force efficiency of tested fuselage systems. On the other hand, the test speed did not show any significant effects whereas; the fiber orientation did have a significant effect.