CERTIFICATION OF THE COMPOSITE OUTER WING OF THE ATR72

ATR72 was the first civil aircraft with a composite wing, to be certif ied JAR/FAR 25 (Joint Aviation Requirements/Federal Aviation Regulatio ns). Using the latest developments composites ACJ 25603, AC20-107A com ply with the requirements of JAR/FAR 25; the ATR72 composite outer win g box was certified by the DGAC in September 1989 and by FAA in Decemb er 1989. This paper deals with Aerospatiale's innovative approach,focu sing on four major certification topics: the determination of allowabl es from statistical analysis substantiated by tests on cross-ply plain and notched laminates; the fatigue and damage tolerance substantiatio ns performed by analysis to show the non-initiation of fatigue damage and by full-scale test for the no-growth of acceptable manufacturing d efects and accidental damages; the development of a probabilistic appr oach to determine the inspection intervals for accidental impacts in d amage-tolerance justifications; the compliance philosophy developed to qualify a second source material (approved by the company in 1992).