<p>The main obstacle of introducing structural bonding in aerospace applications is its damage tolerance behavior, as in the case of damages, a potential crack can grow in an uncontrolled manner to a critical size. At Airbus Helicopters, a purely geometrical adaptation of a single lap shear bond line was developed which stops potential crack growth effectively and reliably. The main principle is based upon splitting up the bond line along its length into several sub-bondings. The separation of the individual sub-bondings is achieved by an intermeshing pattern of both ends of the panels (for example, a zig-zag line) which are connected to the splice plate. At this zig-zag line, cracks cannot propagate anymore and thus are stopped effectively. An additional benefit of the intermeshing pattern is that the stress peaks are reduced up to 30% compared to the common constant overlap, depending on the pattern and adhesive type. It is demonstrated by analysis and tests that the new design principle is limiting crack growth in the bond line and increases the load transfer capability at the same time. The theoretical crack propagation speed decreases up to a factor of 40, depending on the initial position of a possible crack before the crack is arrested by the geometric feature.</p>