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General Aviation Aircraft - Normal Acceleration Data Analysis and Collection Project

In 1962, at the request of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), and
upon recommendation of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration
(NASA) Committee on Aircraft Operating Problems, the NASA V-G/VGH General
Aviation Program was established. The purpose of the program was to define the
gust and maneuver loads, airspeed practices, and altitude usages of general
aviation airplanes and to provide a data bank of information for use by airplane
designers.

The VGH recorder provides a time-history record of the indicated airspeed,
pressure altitude, and normal acceleration near the center of gravity of the
instrumented airplanes. The V-G recorder provides envelope~type information of
the maximum in-flight accelerations and their corresponding airspeeds. Only the
VGH data is presented in this report since the V-G data is not applicable to
airplane fatigue substantiation. A brief description of the NASA VGH recorder is
included in Appendix F.

FAA’s definitions of airplane categories (e.g., normal, utility, acrobatic,
commuter) and maximum Weight ranges (i.e., small airplane, large airplane) are
listed on the page titled Definitions and Acronyms. From October 17, 1979, to
September 13, 1983, commuter category airplanes were type certificated to Special
Federal Aviation Regulation (SFAR) No. 41, and production was permitted until
October 17, 1991. These airplanes were generally derived from small airplane
designs that were certificated under Part 23. Amendment 2334 (effective
February 17, 1987) expanded Part 23 to include additional requirements applicable
to certification of commuter category airplanes. Some commuter category airplanes
have been delivered as normal category small airplanes with executive seating for
nine or fewer passengers.

A further clarification of commuter operations may be in order. Small
multiengine airplanes, commuter category, and transport category airplanes are
being used in commuter airplane operations. FAA’s Aging Commuter Airplane
Program addresses multiengine airplanes having maximum weights greater than
6,000 lbs, with any seating capacity up to 60 passengers.

To obtain a representative sample of general aviation operations, eight
types of operations, as follows, were covered in the NASA data collection program:
twin-engine executive, single-engine executive, personal, instructional, commercial
survey, aerobatic, aerial application, and commuter airline. These operations are
described further in Appendix B.