A Systematic Approach towards the Integration of Initial Airworthiness Regulatory Requirements in Remotely Piloted Aircraft System Conceptual Design Methodologies

The regulatory framework of Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (RPASs) has recently experienced an extraordinary evolution. This article seeks to improve the integration of certification considerations in RPAS conceptual design approaches so as to enhance the safety, certifiability and competitivenes...

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Main Authors: Álvaro Gómez-Rodríguez, Cengiz Turkoglu, Cristina Cuerno-Rejado
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2024-09-01
Series:Aerospace
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2226-4310/11/9/735
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author Álvaro Gómez-Rodríguez
Cengiz Turkoglu
Cristina Cuerno-Rejado
author_facet Álvaro Gómez-Rodríguez
Cengiz Turkoglu
Cristina Cuerno-Rejado
author_sort Álvaro Gómez-Rodríguez
collection DOAJ
description The regulatory framework of Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (RPASs) has recently experienced an extraordinary evolution. This article seeks to improve the integration of certification considerations in RPAS conceptual design approaches so as to enhance the safety, certifiability and competitiveness of their resulting designs. The first part of the research conducts a two-stage analysis of contemporary regulations related to an RPAS’s initial airworthiness. In the first stage, the broad international regulation paradigm is evaluated attending to a set of criteria that are tightly related to both airworthiness and design considerations. The second stage keeps the most promising documents from a design–integration standpoint, which are assessed according to their applicability considering both design and operational aspects. The results of this analysis provide insights regarding the main issues in airworthiness design criteria extraction and integration in design methodologies. To aid the designer in surmounting these challenges, a flexible procedure named DECEX is developed. Considering the documents and findings from the survey, and attending to the scope of the design methodology being developed, it aids in establishing a complete regulatory document corpus and in comparing and extracting the applicable airworthiness design criteria. Two case studies for different RPAS types are conducted to demonstrate its application.
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spelling doaj-art-dfa4a74dce634e0a8ff69b3bdfe2030a2025-08-20T01:56:09ZengMDPI AGAerospace2226-43102024-09-0111973510.3390/aerospace11090735A Systematic Approach towards the Integration of Initial Airworthiness Regulatory Requirements in Remotely Piloted Aircraft System Conceptual Design MethodologiesÁlvaro Gómez-Rodríguez0Cengiz Turkoglu1Cristina Cuerno-Rejado2Department of Aircraft and Spacecraft, Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingeniería Aeronáutica y del Espacio, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Plaza del Cardenal Cisneros, 3, 28040 Madrid, SpainCentre for Safety & Accident Investigation, School of Aerospace Transport and Manufacturing, Cranfield University, College Road, Cranfield, Bedfordshire MK43 0AL, UKDepartment of Aircraft and Spacecraft, Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingeniería Aeronáutica y del Espacio, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Plaza del Cardenal Cisneros, 3, 28040 Madrid, SpainThe regulatory framework of Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (RPASs) has recently experienced an extraordinary evolution. This article seeks to improve the integration of certification considerations in RPAS conceptual design approaches so as to enhance the safety, certifiability and competitiveness of their resulting designs. The first part of the research conducts a two-stage analysis of contemporary regulations related to an RPAS’s initial airworthiness. In the first stage, the broad international regulation paradigm is evaluated attending to a set of criteria that are tightly related to both airworthiness and design considerations. The second stage keeps the most promising documents from a design–integration standpoint, which are assessed according to their applicability considering both design and operational aspects. The results of this analysis provide insights regarding the main issues in airworthiness design criteria extraction and integration in design methodologies. To aid the designer in surmounting these challenges, a flexible procedure named DECEX is developed. Considering the documents and findings from the survey, and attending to the scope of the design methodology being developed, it aids in establishing a complete regulatory document corpus and in comparing and extracting the applicable airworthiness design criteria. Two case studies for different RPAS types are conducted to demonstrate its application.https://www.mdpi.com/2226-4310/11/9/735remotely piloted aircraft systems (RPASs)initial airworthiness regulationsRPAS regulationsRPAS airworthinessregulation analysisRPAS conceptual design
spellingShingle Álvaro Gómez-Rodríguez
Cengiz Turkoglu
Cristina Cuerno-Rejado
A Systematic Approach towards the Integration of Initial Airworthiness Regulatory Requirements in Remotely Piloted Aircraft System Conceptual Design Methodologies
Aerospace
remotely piloted aircraft systems (RPASs)
initial airworthiness regulations
RPAS regulations
RPAS airworthiness
regulation analysis
RPAS conceptual design
title A Systematic Approach towards the Integration of Initial Airworthiness Regulatory Requirements in Remotely Piloted Aircraft System Conceptual Design Methodologies
title_full A Systematic Approach towards the Integration of Initial Airworthiness Regulatory Requirements in Remotely Piloted Aircraft System Conceptual Design Methodologies
title_fullStr A Systematic Approach towards the Integration of Initial Airworthiness Regulatory Requirements in Remotely Piloted Aircraft System Conceptual Design Methodologies
title_full_unstemmed A Systematic Approach towards the Integration of Initial Airworthiness Regulatory Requirements in Remotely Piloted Aircraft System Conceptual Design Methodologies
title_short A Systematic Approach towards the Integration of Initial Airworthiness Regulatory Requirements in Remotely Piloted Aircraft System Conceptual Design Methodologies
title_sort systematic approach towards the integration of initial airworthiness regulatory requirements in remotely piloted aircraft system conceptual design methodologies
topic remotely piloted aircraft systems (RPASs)
initial airworthiness regulations
RPAS regulations
RPAS airworthiness
regulation analysis
RPAS conceptual design
url https://www.mdpi.com/2226-4310/11/9/735
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