FACTORS OF SAFETY: HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT, STATE OF THE ART AND FUTURE OUTLOOK

The concept of the factors of structural safety presently applied to the design of fixed-wing aircraft can be traced back some 50 years. The last decades have brought about rapid progress in establishing aerodynamic derivatives, defining load conditions and predicting structural loads as well as enabling more detailed analyses for stress and deformation to be made. The lack of a rational basis for the factors of safety together with the progress made brought about a discussion of changing the concept and the factors involved. The three pilot papers contained in this report address the different aspects which are envisaged, and show up inconsistencies of the present concept as well as means and methods for possible changes and examples of the outcome. An additional paper summarizes what is going on in the field of civil engineering with respect to structural safety.

• Supplemental Notes:
  • Presented at the Meetings (43rd, 44th and 45th) and the Technical Address given at the Meeting (44th) of the Structures and Materials Panel of AGARD.
• Corporate Authors:

  Advisory Group Aerospace Research and Development

  7 Rue Ancelle
  92 Neuilly-sur-Seine,   France 
• Publication Date: 1977-11

Media Info

• Pagination: 69 p.

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Aerodynamic force; Aerodynamics; Aircraft; Airframes; Airplanes; Airworthiness; Aviation safety; Civil engineering; Deformation; Distributions (Statistics); Failure; Force; Life cycle analysis; Load factor; Loads; Probability density functions; Reliability; State of the art; Stresses; Structural analysis; Structural engineering; Structural mechanics; Vehicle design
• Uncontrolled Terms: Aircraft design; Aircraft safety; Derivatives (Mathematics); Structural properties; Structural response
• Old TRIS Terms: Aerodynamic loading
• Subject Areas: Aviation; Design; Safety and Human Factors; Vehicles and Equipment;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00175403
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: National Technical Information Service
• Report/Paper Numbers: AGARD-R-661 Proceeding
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: May 31 1978 12:00AM