Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gxg78 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-22T15:45:02.506Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Fail-Safe Structural Design*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 July 2016

N. F. Harpur*
Affiliation:
Bristol Aircraft Limited

Extract

Around the end of the fifteenth century were written what must have been about the first set of airworthiness requirements ever compiled. These were notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci in which he discussed the physics of flight and the design of flying machines. In one of these notebooks he wrote:—

“ In constructing wings one should make one cord to bear the strain and a looser one in the same position so that if the one breaks under the strain the other is in position to serve the same function.”

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Aeronautical Society 1958

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

*

A Section Lecture given before the Society on 9th April 1957

References

1.Da Vinci, Leonardo (1500). Artificial Wings. Manuscript H.29v of the Library of the Institut de France (circa) 1500.Google Scholar
2.U.S. Civil Aeronautics Board, Civil Air Regulations, paragraph 4b-270 (b) amendment 4b-3, 1956.Google Scholar
3.Hitchcock, L. M. (1955). High Altitude Cabin-Pressurization Design Criteria Related to Future Transport Operations. Aeronautical Engineering Review, Vol. 14, No. 8, August 1955.Google Scholar
4.Mcbrearty, J. F. (1955). Fatigue and Fail-Safe Airframe Design; Golden Anniversary Aeronautic Meeting, Society of Automotive Engineers, October 1955.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
5.Tye, W. (1955). The Outlook on Airframe Fatigue. Journal of the Royal Aeronautical Society, May 1955.Google Scholar
6.Spaulding, E. H. (1956). Observations on the Design of Fatigue Resistant and “Fail-Safe” Aircraft Structures. International Conference on Fatigue of Metals. Institution of Mechanical Engineers, September 1956.Google Scholar
7.Bullen, N. I. (1956). The Variation of Gust Frequency with Gust Velocity and Altitude. Aeronautical Research Council, Current Paper 324, October 1956.Google Scholar
8.Press, H. and McDougal, R. L. (1952). The Gust and Gust Load Experience of a Twin-Engine Low Altitude Transport Airplane in Operation on a Northern Trans-Continental Route. N.A.C.A. T.N. 2663, April 1952.Google Scholar
9.Rhode, R. V. and Donely, P. (1944). Frequency of Occurence of Atmospheric Gusts and Related Loads on Airplane Structures. N.A.C.A. A.R.R. Report L 4121, November 1944.Google Scholar
10.Starkey, R. D. (1949). Analysis of the Accelerations and Speeds Recorded on B.O.A.C. Constellation Aircraft. R.A.E. Paper, October 1949.Google Scholar
11.Starkey, R. D. (1949). Analysis of V-g Records. R.A.E. Paper, May 1949.Google Scholar
12.Coleman, T. L. and Schumacher, P. W. J. (1952). An Analysis of Normal Acceleration and Airspeed Data from a Four-engined Type of Transport Airplane in Commercial Operation on an Eastern United States Route from November 1947 to February 1950. N.A.C.A. T.N. 2965, October 1952.Google Scholar
13.Starkey, R. D. (1950). Review of Gust Data from Civil Aircraft V-g Records. R.A.E. Paper, August 1950.Google Scholar
14.Coleman, T. L. and Schumacher, P. W. J. (1950). An Analysis of the Normal Accelerations and Airspeeds of a Four-engine Airplane Type in Post-War Commercial Transport Operations on Trans-Pacific and Caribbean— South American Routes. N.A.C.A. T.N. 2176, August 1950.Google Scholar
15.Conway, W. J. (1956). Crack Propagation Tests Safeguard New Lockheed Structures. Aviation Age, December 1956.Google Scholar
16.Sorensen, A. (1956). Some Design Considerations for Tear-Resistant Airplane Structures. Institute of Aeronautical Sciences Preprint No. 618, January 1956.Google Scholar
17.Bristol Aircraft Ltd. (1956). Crack Propagation in Flat Tensile Specimens of Light Alloy Sheet Materials. Aeronautical Research Council Paper No. 18960, June 1956.Google Scholar
18.Wells, A. A. (1955). The Conditions for Fast Fracture in Aluminium Alloys with particular reference to Comet Failures. British Welding Research Association Report R.B. 129, April 1955.Google Scholar
19.Hardrath, H. F., Leybold, H. A., Landers, C. B. and Hauschild, L. W. (1956). Fatigue Crack Propagation in Aluminum Alloy Box Beams. N.A.C.A. T.N. 3856, August 1956.Google Scholar
20.Peters, R. W. and Daw, N. F. (1956). Failure Characteristics of Pressurized Stiffened Cylinders. N.A.C.A. T.N. 3851, August 1956.Google Scholar
21.Kuhn, P. (1956). Fatigue Engineering of the Airframe. International Conference on Fatigue in Aircraft Structures at Columbia University, New York, January 1956.Google Scholar
22.Williams, D. A Constructional Method for Minimising the Hazard of Catastrophic Failure in a Pressure Cabin. Aeronautical Research Council Current Paper 286.Google Scholar
23.Cardwell, D. and Poole, J. (1945). Some Considerations of Leakage in Pressure Cabins. R.A.E. Paper, February 1945.Google Scholar