Date of Award

Fall 2025

Document Type

Open Access Thesis

Department

Mechanical Engineering

First Advisor

Victor Giugiutiu

Abstract

Extended Twin-Engine Operations (ETOPS) certification ensures safe trans-oceanic operation of transport category aircraft. A critical aspect of ETOPS certification is compliance with ditching regulations. The importance of ditching analysis has grown significantly and come under greater scrutiny because of the ‘Miracle on the Hudson’ incident. For transport category aircraft certified under 14 CFR 25 regulations, compliance with ditching requirements, rests on two major components. First, demonstrating acceptable aircraft dynamic behavior during the ditching event and second, ensuring the airframe can withstand the loads generated because of water impact.

Historically, original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) relied on comparisons to existing aircraft with known ditching characteristics for certification. However, the Hudson River incident has led to stricter standards, requiring detailed analysis and simulation in lieu of comparison. This shift in certification emphasis has imposed significant barriers to certifications in terms of cost and time (complex and expensive testing). These investments may be justifiable for new aircraft programs, it very quickly becomes cost-prohibitive for minor changes to existing aircraft outer mold line (OML) geometries, localized geometry changes, and minor mass distribution adjustments which are common for supplemental type certificate (STC) and special missions work. Reducing certification workload for these changes is advantageous to OEMs. This thesis explores a preliminary study of a building block approach to certification by analysis and makes a recommendation for a computational technique for simulation of ditching.

Rights

© 2025, Sean Taylor

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