Friction Stir Welding (FSW) has shown great promise for joining aluminum from both a technical and manufacturing perspective. Very often implementations fail due to the prohibitive cost of non recurring engineering involved when making design changes to an existing, proven vehicle. As most FSW activity has focused on butt type configurations, this has limited implementation out of the necessity for design changes. As FSW technology progresses, so does the design and analytical capability to handle it. This presentation will focus on advantages of a lap FSW configuration over a butt joint for increased manufacturability in thin-gauge aerostructures. Mechanical property data and metallographic analyses will be presented for Al 7075 alloy.