TsAGI Holds Seminar on Creation, Development of Aircraft Strength Technical Regulations
27 December 2021
Scientists of TsAGI (a part of NRC “Zhukovsky Institute”) discussed the development of technical regulations aimed at enabling aircraft structural strength. The seminar was held in Zhukovsky, Moscow Region, at TsAGI’s Center for Science, Technology and Information, in December.
The meeting was opened by Aleksandr Medvedsky, First Deputy General Director, TsAGI; Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences. He congratulated the participants on the 90th anniversary of TsAGI’s Department for Aircraft Structural Strength (its current name is the Research Complex for Aircraft Structural Strength). He also stressed the relevance of the seminar’s topic, which allows discussing the complex aspects of improving and harmonizing the legislative and regulatory basis of the aircraft technology certification system.
Mikhail Zichenkov, Deputy Director General, Head of Strength Complex, TsAGI, gave a short introduction on the history of the department. He said that the department was founded in 1931; its first head was Prof. G.A. Ozerov, the famous aircraft designer and Doctor of Technical Sciences. The first agreed standards of strength for military and civil aircraft appeared in the early 1930s.
‘The Complex has a rich history; a prodigious amount of work is left behind any accomplishment by any individual. Today, the Institute’s specialists for strength work in three main areas. First, they create a technological advance for advanced aircraft; second, they perform applied research and tests. Third, they provide the expertise and technical regulations, the topic of our today’s seminar. We issue over 300 certificates annually, including those aircraft maiden flights, for maintaining aircraft airworthiness in terms of its service life and lifetime, etc.,’ said Mikhail Zichenkov.
A key report was delivered at the meeting by O.S. Mamedov, Deputy Head at TsAGI’s Department for Standards of Strength, Loads and Aeroelasticity, which presented a draft version of the Calculation Procedures and Test Procedures Enabling Structural Strength of Civil Aircraft. The regulatory document has been developed by TsAGI since 2019. It updates the current Regulations of 1983, considering the practice of modern aircraft operation, Russian Federal Aviation Rules, and new national standards.
The presented regulations caused a lively discussion among the participants of the seminar. Amendments were proposed by heads and specialists from the Union of Aircraft Industrialists of Russia, the NRC “Zhukovsky Institute”, Ilyushin PJSC, Irkut PJSC, Mil and Kamov, CIAM, etc.
Special attention was paid to the certification of rotorcraft. A.V. Pankov, Deputy Head at TsAGI’s Department for Aircraft Structural Life, spoke on the data obtained after analyzing Russian and foreign regulations for rotorcraft structural life. D.V. Nedelko, Leading Specialist at TsAGI’s Department for Standards of Strength, Loads and Aeroelasticity, reported on a method for determining a safe life according to fatigue conditions of rotorcraft units.
The seminar ended with a speech by Evgeny Gorbunov, General Director at Union of Aviation Industrialists of Russia; he emphasized the importance of updating the regulations, considering the best experience accumulated recently by domestic and foreign aircraft industries, and intensifying further steps in this area.
The event was attended by over 100 people representing Union of Aircraft Industrialists of Russia, the NRC “Zhukovsky Institute”, GosNII GA, Gromov Flight Research Institute, Ilyushin PJSC, Irkut PJSC, SibNIA named after S.A. Chaplygin, Mil and Kamov, EMZ, Tupolev PJSC, ONPP Technology, etc. It was proposed to organize extra meetings for discussing the development of aircraft strength technical regulations.