WAYS TO ENSURE THE EFFICIENCY OF TRANSPORT CATEGORY AIRCRAFT WING FLAPS

Abstract

The article discusses the main approaches to increasing the survivability of wing flaps of transport category aircraft. Incidents related to failures of flaps and wing and fin mechanics controls are considered, and the causes and consequences are analysed.  An algorithm for calculating the required flap area to ensure the specified characteristics in take-off and landing configurations is presented. Particular attention is paid to design measures to improve the durability characteristics of the flap structure, such as providing multi-track load transfer by implementing a multi-element design, segmenting the flap structure into separate independent modules, duplicating load transfer paths, using aluminium alloys with improved characteristics due to increased purity of alloys and the introduction of alloying elements such as zirconium and lithium; application of polymeric composite materials, especially carbon fibre-reinforced plastics, which allows to reduce the weight of the structure and increase its resistance to fatigue damage, limit stress levels in potentially dangerous areas and ensure minimum stress concentration; application of structural and technological measures to improve the durability characteristics by surface strengthening of structural elements, ensuring structural inspection and non-destructive testing methods, calculation and experimental studies of durability characteristics.