The intrinsic dependence on the necessary minimum structural performance of inflatable aircraft evacuation slides and slide-rafts in the event of and emergency or precautionary aircraft evacuation is described in the context of the certification of both new (or modified) aircraft and slide designs. The concepts of the pneumatic structure with analytical and numerical methodologies are briefly reviewed. Fundamental principles of inflatable evacuation slide performance and assessment are presented, while the characteristics of typical structural responses are identified for single deck aircraft. The implications of evacuation from an upper deck of a VLTA are identified in the interpretation of two new commercial inflatable evacuation slide designs. Alternative meso and macro pneumatic structural forms are proposed as evolutions of the conventional inflated tube. Outline details of a simple mixed finite element and vector-based simulation algorithm for the analysis of pneumatic structures precede examples verifying the numerical formulation and demonstrating the potential of multi-cell beam (meso) and “semi-pneumatic shell membrane” (macro) pneumatic concepts. Recommendations for future research conclude the paper.

Emergency evacuation of future very large transport aircraft (VLTA) in the event of a survivable crash poses a challenge for aircraft manufacturers and certification authorities. In addition, the increase in passenger capacity and flight duration associated with such airframes requires that some general cabin safety issues be revisited. Information gained from previous accidents and research has been reviewed with particular regard to VLTAs. This has included consideration of the issues associated with the aircraft configuration, the behaviour and training of the cabin crew, passenger behaviour in emergency situations, and issues relevant to future trends within the industry.

Very Large Transport Aircraft (VLTA) pose considerable challenges to designers, operators and certification authorities. Questions concerning seating arrangement, nature and design of recreational space, the number, design and location of internal staircases, the number of cabin crew required and the nature of the cabin crew emergency procedures are just some of the issues that need to be addressed. Other more radical concepts such as blended wing body (BWB) design, involving one or two decks with possibly four or more aisles offer even greater challenges. Can the largest exits currently available cope with passenger flow arising from four or five aisles? Do we need to consider new concepts in exit design? Should the main aisles be made wider to accommodate more passengers? In this paper we demonstrate how computer based evacuation models can be used to investigate these issues through examination of staircase evacuation procedures for VLTA and aisle/exit configuration for BWB cabin layouts.

The Aircraft Accident Statistics and Knowledge (AASK) database is a repository of survivor accounts from aviation accidents. Its main purpose is to store observational and anecdotal data from the actual interviews of the occupants involved in aircraft accidents. The database has wide application to aviation safety analysis, being a source of factual data regarding the evacuation process. It is also key to the development of aircraft evacuation models such as airEXODUS, where insight into how people actually behave during evacuation from survivable aircraft crashes is required. This paper describes recent developments with the database leading to the development of AASK v3.0. These include significantly increasing the number of passenger accounts in the database, the introduction of cabin crew accounts, the introduction of fatality information, improved functionality through the seat plan viewer utility and improved ease of access to the database via the internet. In addition, the paper demonstrates the use of the database by investigating a number of important issues associated with aircraft evacuation. These include issues associated with social bonding and evacuation, the relationship between the number of crew and evacuation efficiency, frequency of exit/slide failures in accidents and exploring possible relationships between seating location and chances of survival. Finally, the passenger behavioural trends described in analysis undertaken with the earlier database are confirmed with the wider data set.