Airworthiness — A Systems Approach

This article is written by Mr. Major at the invitation of the publishers of AIRCRAFT ENGINEERING as an introduction to the series that is being published during 1980, (as was said in the Comment in the January issue), on the important subject of Airworthiness. Mr. Major says “My comments are not intended to be an official expression of views of the Society of which I am President, and they are based on experience in civil air transport covering technical development, aircraft maintenance and ground operations and, in the aircraft manufacturing industry, covering structural and detail design, production and after‐sales liaison with military users. This fairly diverse experience and some of the events which have occurred in the course of acquiring it, have led me to the view that many (perhaps most) of the airworthiness shortcomings that occur are due to the ‘gulfs’ which develop between specializations, or to the lack of communication (in the widest sense — and both ways) between the elements contributing to ‘total’ airworthiness.”