Transport Aircraft Seating in Rotorcraft Crash Testing
Joseph Pellettiere, Amanda Taylor, Federal Aviation Administration
May 17, 2016

Transport Aircraft Seating in Rotorcraft Crash Testing
- Presented at Forum 72
- 9 pages
- SKU # : 72-2016-025
- Your Price : $30.00
Join or log in to receive the member price of $15.00!
Transport Aircraft Seating in Rotorcraft Crash Testing
Authors / Details: Joseph Pellettiere and Amanda Taylor, Federal Aviation AdministrationAbstract
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has standards and regulations that are designed to protect aircraft occupants in the event of a crash. These standards focus primarily on horizontal and vertical impact protection, and measure the dynamic performance of the seating system and occupant restraints. Currently no requirement for full-scale crashworthiness testing exists due to the cost prohibitive nature of conducting such a test. The requirements were developed through review of research, existing requirements, modeling and simulation, and accident analysis. A drop of a Transport Rotorcraft Airframe Crash Testbed (TRACT), CH-46 airframe, at the National Aeronautics and Space Agencys Langley Research Center Landing and Impact Facility, provided an opportunity to investigate the performance of an airframe in a simulated crash condition. This provided full scale data on the performance of previously approved transport category aircraft seating systems. Passenger seats that were previously certified to 14 CFR § 25.562 aviation regulations with a 49 CFR § 572 50% Hybrid II Anthropomorphic Test Device (ATD) were included in the testing. It was expected that the real crash pulse measured at the floor, would differ from the certification tests and the performance of the seats would as well. The ATDs used in the crash test included the 50% Hybrid II, a 50% FAA Hybrid III, 5% Hybrid III and a 95% Hybrid III. Injuries in the spinal column are of concern, so lumbar loads were collected for all ATDs, in addition to head, chest and pelvis accelerations. The Part 25 Passenger seats remained attached to the floor structure; however the experimental sub floor structure failed for the forward occupants. The restraint system held the occupants in place, however the compressive lumbar loads measured were significantly higher than those seen in typical certification tests, and exceeded the regulatory limit of 1500 lb. Typical certification tests primarily use the 50% Hybrid II or an equivalent, which is the FAA Hybrid III. The main performance requirement during a vertical test is the compressive lumbar loads, but structural integrity is also evaluated. This testing demonstrated that seats dynamically qualified for lower impact severities (14 G) were able to maintain structural integrity but were not able to control spinal injury risk at this load level.
Recently Viewed Items
-
Transport Aircraft Seating in Rotorcraft Crash Testing
- Member Price :
- $15.00
- Your Price :
- $30.00