Large aircraft reliability study as important aspect of the aircraft systems' design changes and improvements

Abstract

Along with the increase in air traffic, the number of reported aviation events also increases. The authors have performed processing of the data included in the European Coordination Centre for Aviation Incident Reporting Systems (ECCAIRS) analyzing large aircraft reliability and safety of their operations considering events according to ICAO aviation occurrence categories. The airframe systems are the biggest contributor to the total number of reported events which occurred on the Polish registered large aircraft in the years 2008–2018. Failures of these systems caused more than 23% of total reported aviation events. Based on the ECCAIRS data, determination of occurrence categories essential for aviation safety was performed with the assessment of their safety risk level. Also, detailed airframe systems' reliability study was carried out in order to assess the real reason of their failures. Airframe systems' faults were assigned to the specific ATA chapters and then to each of their sections. The most frequently occurring defects of each unit of the particular airframe system were identified. The results of this analysis may support the decisions of supervisory authorities in the areas where security threats are most important. They can also help aircraft operators with identification of the airframe units which require special attention, and as support in improvement of safety analysis. Identification of significant parts due to the frequency of malfunctions of the system components can be a support for designers who have the information needed to improve the design of specific airframe system.