Horizontal Collision Impact on Avionics

Abstract

A Cessna 525B citation CJ3 (a stretched variant of the 525A Citation CJ2) was involved in an on-ground horizontal crash that occurred between a fast moving car and a towed airplane. The Avionics packages were not bench tested before being declared acceptable for continued usage by the manufacturer. A search of the FAA crash and hard landings web listings (Boeing, 2011) revealed few similar and no identical accidents; no statistics were available upon which to base a declaration of acceptable usage. Further, we could not locate comprehensive horizontal impact research articles. In this paper we present a component level analysis of inferred damage within the CJ3’savionic equipment that one may reasonably expect to find with sufficient horizontal impact, based on existing component part and PCB board analysis. This study of the individual component parts tests serves as a proxy for these needed drop tests and statistical analysis (albeit with unspecified accuracy). This generic damage profile for avionics component parts damage indicates that avionics equipment may be compromised during horizontal impact even if they pass bench testing.

Keywords:  Horizontal Impact, Avionics, Generic Damage, FAA, PCB

Cite this Article:

Perkins Louise A.  Horizontal Collision Impact on Avionics. Journal of Aerospace Engineering and Technology. 2015; 5(1): 30–36p.