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Engineering plastics are now available for use on lightly loaded aircraft structure. These materials have excellent cost benefits as well as producibility benefits over their hand laidup predecessors. They are especially useful in the strut and nacelle areas where many of the fairings are attached for aerodynamic purposes only and may have rather complicated contours. In addition to lower costs, the manufacturing process is consistent, unlike hand laidup parts, which often require rework. In the strut and nacelle area one of the major requirements for all parts is sonic durability. This paper is intended to explain the test setup and test procedure for sonic testing of thermoplastics and thermosets and the results of the testing up to this point. Included in this explanation will be the assumptions made, the test setup, results of the testing and conclusions drawn from the testing.

Determining local ice crystal icing concentration factors in the region of the forward fuselage is critical for setting the Total Water Content levels for air data probe qualification testing. Simulation, modeling, and testing techniques for this concentration-factor phenomenon are still in their infancy, and there is currently not a significant amount of this type of analysis in the literature. A representative, 3D analysis was conducted using transport airplane geometry and flight conditions that explored the sensitivities resulting from parametric changes to flight and ice crystal icing conditions, particle modeling parameters, and bouncing effects.