The Compound Materials Aircraft Working Group can now
look back on an important anniversary date: on 17th. and 18th. July this year, the members
met for the 50th. time. The Working Group was founded on 20th. February 1987 by German aircraft
engine manufacturers and the Federal Office of Civil Aeronautics under the chairmanship
of the technical-scientific services provider IABG. In the meantime the chairmanship has
been taken over by the firm Grob, Aerospace Directorate. The central task through to today
is the creation of a common basis for the development and certification of structures for
compound materials aircraft in accordance with FAR/JAR 23.
 This
important basis for the development of compound materials aircraft has been compiled by
the Working Group by maintaining and updating the Compound Materials Aircraft Handbook.
In this standard work for the small aircraft industry is documented the collective knowledge
surrounding the development, design and manufacture of compound materials aircraft. Thus,
for example, there are a large number of confirmatory methods coor-dinated with the Federal
Office of Civil Aeronautics for the fulfilment of air-worthiness certification requirements
in accordance with FAR/JAR 23 and which thus serve to strengthen the small and medium-sized
companies in the aircraft industry.
In order to keep the Handbook always up-to-date, the members of the Working Group continuously
worked on new topics in the form of subject papers which were then critically reviewed in
the Working Group meetings every six months and included in the Handbook after having been
revised and agreed. The proposals for contributions were initiated not only by members of
the Working Group but also from external sources. Thus, for instance, the Federal Ministry
of Transport repeatedly put forward individual topics. A current example of this is the
development of a simplified confir-matory method for changing the resin system for already
certificated struc-tures. This investigation was concluded in the middle of 2001 under the
lead management of IABG and with the involvement of members of the Working Group and in
close cooperation with the Federal Office of Civil Aeronautics.
In the 50th.Meeting of the Working Group, the participants discussed the necessary steps
confirmatory method for changing the compound materials for already certificated structures.
The following firms and institutes are represented in the Compound Materi-als Aircraft Working
Group
Firms:
- IABG mbH
- Aerostruktur
- Extra Flugzeugbau
- Grob, Unternehmensbereich Luft-und Raumfahrt
- Euro ENAER
- MK Helicopter GmbH
- Zeppelin NT
Institutes:
- Institut für Flugzeugbau (IFB) der Universität Stuttgart
- Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt (DLR) Stuttgart
Governmental Agencies:
- Federal Office of Civil Aeronautics
07/19/02
printerfriendly Version |
