Reanalysis of European Flight Loads Data
Abstract
The principle tasks of this research effort were to identify and acquire existing European flight loads data, to develop a unified procedure to reduce the acceleration data into gust statistics, and to reduce and analyze the data. Three data bases containing information on center of gravity acceleration experience of commercial transport aircraft were obtained and analyzed. A very large database containing data on aircraft operated by British Airways was obtained from the office National d'etudes et de researches aerospatiales in France. A database kept at National Aerospace Laboratory, containing information on Boeing B-747 aircraft operated by KLM, SAS, and Swissair, was also used. The third database contains data collected several years ago by the Royal Aircraft Establishment for a wide variety of mainly piston-engine aircraft. The size of the combined database, corresponding to 870,000 flights, 1.6 billion kilometers, and 2 million flight hours. A unified procedure was developed to reduce the data based on both discrete and continuous gust approaches. The results obtained show a considerably lower gust experience at higher altitude than predicted by currently used statistical models. At low altitudes, these results tended to agree with other statistical data. However, gust exceedance data at altitudes below 2000 feet were incomplete and partially biased by maneuver accelerations. Additional low altitude gust exceedance data are needed. Flight loads, Commercial aircraft, Gusts (Ude, PSD), Data Base, Normal acceleration.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- May 01, 1994
- Accession Number
- ADA282052
Entities
People
- J. B. De Jonge
- P. A. Hol
- P. A. Van Gelder
Organizations
- National Aerospace Laboratory