Certification Standards
Certification standards applicable to the airworthiness of an aircraft contain many requirements. Some of these requirements can only be met by specifying a maximum weight for the aircraft, and demonstrating that the aircraft can meet the requirement at all weights up to, and including, the specified maximum. These requirements include:
- structural requirements – to ensure the aircraft structure is capable of withstanding all the loads likely to be imposed on it during maneuvering by the pilot, and gusts experienced in turbulent atmospheric conditions.
- performance requirements – to ensure the aircraft is capable of climbing at an adequate gradient with all its engines operating; and also with one engine inoperative.
At the MTOW, all aircraft of a type and model must be capable of complying with all these certification requirements.
Read more about this topic: Maximum Takeoff Weight
Famous quotes containing the word standards:
“There are ... two minimum conditions necessary and sufficient for the existence of a legal system. On the one hand those rules of behavior which are valid according to the system’s ultimate criteria of validity must be generally obeyed, and on the other hand, its rules of recognition specifying the criteria of legal validity and its rules of change and adjudication must be effectively accepted as common public standards of official behavior by its officials.”
—H.L.A. (Herbert Lionel Adolphus)