Atmospheric flight gust loads analysis

A new Monte Carlo atmospheric Eight gust loads analysis approach is present ed. The procedure uses forcing functions that were derived by extracting th e short-duration, turbulent components of measured wind profiles. Over 1000 forcing functions were used in each analysis. The load analysis results we re analyzed statistically to establish the 99.7% enclosure, 90% confidence level, load values. Results are presented for a medium-lift launch vehicle and a heavy-lift launch vehicle. Loads for various altitude bands, time of year and the Eastern Range and Western Range launch facilities in the Unite d States are compared. Also, the Monte Carlo results are compared to a prev alent synthetic gust analysis approach in use today.