Investigation on Airworthiness Certification of Composite Materials for Civil Aircraft

The airworthiness certifications topics about the composite materials in civil aviation have been investigated in the paper because of the safety and the performance problems coming from the wide application of composites in civil aircrafts. Since the FAA's airworthiness certification technology for composite materials has a leading level in the world, related FAR and FAA's Advisory Circular concerning composites for civil aircrafts have been sorted out and summarized firstly, including their development and evolution. As an illustration, the airworthiness certification process concerning B777 empennage made from composites has been stated following, which presented the "building block approach" for composites according to the applicable FAR. Based above work, some opinions and suggestions have been put forward in developing the regulations about airworthiness certification of composite materials for Chinese Large Aircraft.