Damage Tolerance Certification of Commercial Aircraft

Damage tolerance is a philosophy used for maintaining the structural safety of commercial transport aircrafts. This article describes the structural evaluations necessary to comply with the regulations contained in the Federal Air worthiness Requirements 25.571 whose guidance is given in Advisory Circular 25.571-1A from the Federal Aviation Administration. It provides an overview of the historical evolution of damage tolerance philosophy and presents a discussion of the design philosophies and a summary of the evaluation tasks for damage tolerance certification.