Certification of Composites for Commercial Aircraft

The increased use of composites in commercial aviation industry has created increased awareness of the effort required for development of certified structures. The certification to American and foreign regulations is complex and sometimes confusing. The regulations and certifying philosophy are still evolving in many cases. The criteria used to certify a structure has increased in complexity for certain requirements and eased in others. This is a result of the continuing use of advanced composites in commercially certified structures. While there is dispute over the extent of future advanced composite applications, it will be required on increasing amounts of commercial aviation structure. Familiarity with the procedures will be needed by all persons involved with commercial aviation. Current certification regulations and standard practices, used for compliance to those regulations, are reviewed herein. This paper is intented to give a general overview for the scope of composite certification activity.