Airworthiness Certification of Civil Aviation Materials

Abstract

Based on years of airworthiness regulations research, combined with the experience of airworthiness certification of civil aviation products, the airworthiness requirement to materials for civil aviation products was analyzed. The key airworthiness requirement for materials is that materials should conform to some material specification to ensure their having the strength and other properties adopted in the design data. The shortcomings of domestic airworthiness management methods for civil aviation materials was discussed and three recommendations for improvement were proposed:(1) conduct individual airworthiness management for civil aviation materials according to CCAR 21.351 through 371 and CCAR 37; (2) develop and promote statistical-based material specification developing methods, to establish material specifications which could ensure material having the strength and other properties adopted in the design data; (3) establish a cooperation mechanism for developing material design value data base for civil aviation materials to reduce the cost of airworthiness certification activities. At the end of this paper, statistical methods used for establishing material specifications were discussed.

Keywords

• civil aviation
• airworthiness certification
• material specification
• statistics