Editing Geodetic airframe (section)

==Early examples==
[[File:Constitutiondiagonalriders.gif|thumb|right|18th-century American warship's "Diagonal riders" in their construction]]

The "diagonal rider" structural element was used by [[Joshua Humphreys]] in the [[Original six frigates of the United States Navy|first US Navy sail frigates]] in 1794.<ref name=usc/> Diagonal riders are viewable in the interior hull structure of the preserved [[USS Constitution|USS ''Constitution'']] on display in Boston Harbor.<ref name=rbb>{{cite web |last1=Brooks |first1=Rebecca Beatrice |title=Construction of the USS Constitution |url=https://historyofmassachusetts.org/uss-constitution-construction/ |website=History of Massachusetts Blog |date=27 June 2017}}</ref><ref name=sf>{{cite conference |last1=Otton |first1=Patrick |title=USS Constitution Rehabilitation And Restoration |url=https://maritime.org/conf/conf-otton-const.htm |publisher=San Francisco Maritime Park Association |conference=Third International Conference on the Technical Aspects of the Preservation of Historic Vessels Conference Proceedings |date=1997}}</ref><ref name=usc>{{cite web |title=Keel Hauled |url=https://ussconstitutionmuseum.org/2016/09/09/keel-hauled/ |publisher=USS CONSTITUTION MUSEUM |date=September 2016}}</ref> The structure was a pioneering example of placing "non-[[Orthogonality|orthogonal]]" structural components within an otherwise conventional structure for its time.<ref name=sf/> The "diagonal riders" were included in these American naval vessels' construction as one of five elements to reduce the problem of [[hogging and sagging|hogging]] in the ship's hull, and did not make up the bulk of the vessel's structure, they do not constitute a completely "geodetic" space frame.{{citation needed|date=July 2019}}

Calling any diagonal wood brace (as used on gates, buildings, ships or other structures with cantilevered or diagonal loads) an example of geodesic design is a misnomer. In a geodetic structure, the strength and structural integrity, and indeed the shape, come from the diagonal "braces" - the structure does not need the "bits in between" for part of its strength (implicit in the name space frame) as does a more conventional wooden structure.