Environmental Test Tailoring for Fighter Aircraft Intended for Operating in Korean Peninsula

Abstract

Operational failures may occur even though there had been no signs of defect during the manufacturing process, which may be caused due to exposure to environmental stress which had not been addressed properly during the design process. It is thus necessary to perform environmental testing to determine the cause of the failures. Environmental testing is also used to determine whether a materiel has enough tolerance to the environmental stress during its operation. In this study, the method and level for each environmental testing are properly tailored and applied to a fight aircraft intended to operate in ROK (Republic of Korea), based on the MIL-STD-810G Change 1. Since each part of a fighter aircraft may be exposed to each different environment, LRUs (Line Replaceable Units) exposed to similar environment should be tested similarly. In addition, the decision whether to apply specific test and the tailoring technique in test level were derived for natural and induced environments, respectively. As a fight aircraft is assumed to operate in ROK, the tailoring of test methods and test level to fit to the environment in Korean peninsula is necessary. Further research is needed in determining a specific procedure and a specific level in a test method, and also in determining the test sequence, when conducting more than one is needed, because it can alter test results and it hence becomes an essential element in test design.