ANALYSIS OF WING SEPARATION AND MID-AIR BREAKUP IN LIGHT TRAINING AIRCRAFT

Despite increasing discussions concerning the recently published wing spar airworthiness directive (AD) that affects many training aircraft and several current ADs for wing struts, there remains limited objective literature on incidents of wing separation or mid-air breakup. This paper attempts to report and analyse instances of wing separation and mid-air breakup of light training aircraft. A careful review of the United States National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) aircraft accident database revealed that wing separations were more likely occur as mid-air breakup in PA28s than 172s/182s (OR: 3.06, 95 % CI: 1.3682 to 6.8536, p = .008). Additionally, wing separations were less likely to occur as mid-air breakups in the strutted 172s/182s than 177s/210s that don’t have a wing strut (OR: 0.11, 95 % CI: 0.04 to 0.29, p = <.001). This implies that non-strutted wing designs may be more susceptability to mid-air breakup than the strutted design of similar aircraft.

Application of the Pulse Infrared Thermography Method for Nondestructive Evaluation of Composite Aircraft Adhesive Joints

In this article, we examine the possibility of using active infrared thermography as a nontraditional, nondestructive evaluation method (NDE) for the testing of adhesive joints. Attention was focused on the load-bearing wing structure and related structural joints, specifically the adhesive joints of the wing spar caps and the skins on the wing demonstrator of a small sport aircraft made mainly of a carbon composite. The Pulse Thermography (PT) method, using flash lamps for optical excitation, was tested. The Modified Differential Absolute Contrast (MDAC) method was used to process the measured data to reduce the effect of the heat source’s inhomogeneity and surface emissivity. This method demonstrated a very high ability to detect defects in the adhesive joints. The achieved results are easy to interpret and use for both qualitative and quantitative evaluation of the adhesive joints of thin composite parts.

OPTIMIZATION OF THE ASSEMBLY OF THE FRONT WING SPAR OF A TRANSPORT AIRCRAFT

This article is to optimize the assembly of the front wing spar of a transport aircraft. Particular attention is paid to reducing the complexity, assembly cycle and other parameters that determine the efficiency of the process. According to experts, the domestic civil aviation fleet today is characterized as obsolete both morally and physically. The most important advantage of new products is the increased resource provided by the use of new materials, new design and technological solutions. One of such solutions is the widespread use of bent profiles from promising aluminum sheet materials. The presence of a cladding layer, a more uniform structure provides an increased resource. An important part of the production process of an aircraft manufacturing enterprise is assembly work, which largely determines the quality of the product. The main ways to increase the efficiency of assembly work, preparation of production, reduce costs is to increase the manufacturability of products, the creation of new means of production, the wider use of mechanization and automation, as well as the selection of optimal technological processes and means of equipping assembly work in technological design.

Study of reinforcement design h-profile of aircraft wing spar

In today's world, with ever-increasing safety requirements, there is a growing demand to maintain or reduce production costs. In aviation, in addition to factors like weight and related variables such as resistance to vibration, corrosion, temperature and other are also considered. The task of this paper is to analyse unconventional designs of wing beams with respect to the current requirements of the aviation industry. In the article, the authors analyse the possibilities of design modification either by adding ribs to the profile, or by changing the cross-section of the profile itself. In practice, such design changes would increase weight, production time and finances, but also increase strength and thus safety. All proposed changes were subjected to strength analyses by FEM (Finite element method) computer simulations. The article output is the selection of suitable designs for further observation and experimental verification to ensure comprehensive results for the possibility of implementation in practice. Despite the non-traditional shapes of the proposed wing beam cross-sections, the authors assume that traditional beam shapes will be gradually modified more efficiently.