Continuing airworthiness policy and application to flying crane aircraft

摘要

This project is part of a collaborative MSc training programme between theAviation Industries of China (AVIC) and Cranfield University, aiming atenhancing the competitiveness of AVIC in both international and domesticaviation market through applying continuing airworthiness policies in the wholeaircraft development process.The arrangement of the research project is that all students start with a GroupDesign Project which is based on the Flying Crane Project provided by AVIC.Individual research projects will address some aspects of the Flying CraneProject during the Group Design Project, and then further developed during theperiod for individual projects. The aim of this research is to apply theairworthiness requirements and the methodology of the Maintenance SteeringGroup logic (MSG-3) in the Flying Crane Project. This is because thatmaintenance is one of the key factors of Continuing Airworthiness, and MSG-3logic is the most accepted and approved method to develop scheduledmaintenance for civil aircrafts.The main objectives of this project include: (1) To investigate current ContinuingAirworthiness regulations, including European airworthiness requirements (asthe main regulation to comply with) and Chinese airworthiness regulations (asan important reference and supplement to the research); (2) To investigate themain analysis methodology of reliability and maintainability, including DamageTolerance and Failure Mode and Effect Analysis (FMEA); (3) To analyse thedata resulted from the Group Design Project using MSG-3 logic to produce a setof Continuing Airworthiness instructions, for the operator and maintenanceorganisation of the aircraft, from the design organization’s perspective; (4) Todevelop Continuing Airworthiness instructions for airline operators to composemaintenance programmes for Flying Crane aircrafts, including maintenancetasks and intervals for the selected airframe systems and structural components;and (5) To identify applicable maintenance organisations in China for FlyingCrane aircrafts in accordance with both European and Chinese airworthinessrequirements.On completion of this research, two aspects of Continuing Airworthiness havebeen investigated, including maintenance programme and maintenanceorganization. With MSG-3 logic, the author developed the maintenance plan forthree structural components (fuselage skin panel, wing root joint, andfin-fuselage attachment) and one airframe system (fuel system) based on resultsfrom the Group Design Project. The author also investigated the Chinesedomestic aircraft maintenance companies, and selected suitable maintenanceorganizations based on technical and economical criteria.