Joint Strike Fighter Airframe Durability and Damage Tolerance Certification

The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter is a stealthy combat aircraft that will serve as the next generation strike fighter. Certification of the airworthiness of this aircraft will be achieved through the demonstration, both by analysis and by test, that a number of structural capability requirements have been met. The testing required for certification is planned and executed according to a building block approach, a time phased test program that parallels and supports the aircraft development. This paper will describe the durability and damage tolerance (DaDT) aspects of this testing and the subsequent application of the results for development and verification of metallic DaDT analytical and computational tools as well as demonstrating overall aircraft structural integrity.