[Federal Register Volume 85, Number 41 (Monday, March 2, 2020)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 12227-12229]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2020-04179]
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Proposed Rules
Federal Register
________________________________________________________________________
This section of the FEDERAL REGISTER contains notices to the public of
the proposed issuance of rules and regulations. The purpose of these
notices is to give interested persons an opportunity to participate in
the rule making prior to the adoption of the final rules.
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Federal Register / Vol. 85 , No. 41 / Monday, March 2, 2020 /
Proposed Rules
[[Page 12227]]
DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
Federal Aviation Administration
14 CFR Part 25
[Docket No. FAA-2019-0840; Notice No. 25-20-01-SC]
Special Conditions: The Boeing Company Model 777-300ER Series
Airplanes; Dynamic Test Requirements for Single-Occupant Oblique Seats
With Pretensioner Restraint Systems
AGENCY: Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), DOT.
ACTION: Notice of proposed special conditions.
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SUMMARY: This action proposes special conditions for Boeing Model 777-
300ER series airplanes. These airplanes will have a novel or unusual
design feature when compared to the state of technology envisioned in
the airworthiness standards for transport category airplanes. This
design feature is single-occupant, oblique seats equipped with
pretensioner restraint systems. The applicable airworthiness
regulations do not contain adequate or appropriate safety standards for
this design feature. These proposed special conditions contain the
additional safety standards that the Administrator considers necessary
to establish a level of safety equivalent to that established by the
existing airworthiness standards.
DATES: Send comments on or before April 16, 2020.
ADDRESSES: Send comments identified by Docket No. FAA-2019-0840 using
any of the following methods:
Federal eRegulations Portal: Go to http://www.regulations.gov/ and follow the online instructions for sending
your comments electronically.
Mail: Send comments to Docket Operations, M-30, U.S.
Department of Transportation (DOT), 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE, Room
W12-140, West Building Ground Floor, Washington, DC, 20590-0001.
Hand Delivery or Courier: Take comments to Docket
Operations in Room W12-140 of the West Building Ground Floor at 1200
New Jersey Avenue SE, Washington, DC, between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., Monday
through Friday, except Federal holidays.
Fax: Fax comments to Docket Operations at 202-493-2251.
Privacy: The FAA will post all comments it receives, without
change, to http://www.regulations.gov/, including any personal
information the commenter provides. Using the search function of the
docket website, anyone can find and read the electronic form of all
comments received into any FAA docket, including the name of the
individual sending the comment (or signing the comment for an
association, business, labor union, etc.). DOT's complete Privacy Act
Statement can be found in the Federal Register published on April 11,
2000 (65 FR 19477-19478).
Docket: Background documents or comments received may be read at
http://www.regulations.gov/ at any time. Follow the online instructions
for accessing the docket or go to Docket Operations in Room W12-140 of
the West Building Ground Floor at 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE,
Washington, DC, between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., Monday through Friday,
except Federal holidays.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Shannon Lennon, Airframe and Cabin
Safety Section, AIR-675, Transport Standards Branch, Policy and
Innovation Division, Aircraft Certification Service, Federal Aviation
Administration, 2200 South 216th Street, Des Moines, Washington 98198;
telephone and fax 206-231-3209; email [email protected].
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Comments Invited
The FAA invites interested people to take part in this rulemaking
by sending written comments, data, or views. The most helpful comments
reference a specific portion of the special conditions, explain the
reason for any recommended change, and include supporting data.
The FAA will consider all comments received by the closing date for
comments. The FAA may change these special conditions based on the
comments received.
Background
On July 18, 2018, Boeing applied for a change to Type Certificate
No. T00001SE for single-occupant oblique seats with pretensioner
restraint systems, instead of airbags, which are the typical restraints
used to protect the passengers from head injuries. These seats are to
be installed in Boeing Model 777-300ER series airplanes. The Boeing
Model 777-300ER series airplanes are twin-engine, transport-category
airplanes with passenger seating capacity of 550 and a maximum takeoff
weight of 775,000 pounds.
Type Certification Basis
Under the provisions of title 14, Code of Federal Regulations (14
CFR) 21.101, Boeing must show that the Model 777-300ER series
airplanes, as changed, continue to meet the applicable provisions of
the regulations listed in Type Certificate No. T00001SE or the
applicable regulations in effect on the date of application for the
change, except for earlier amendments as agreed upon by the FAA.
If the Administrator finds that the applicable airworthiness
regulations (e.g., 14 CFR part 25) do not contain adequate or
appropriate safety standards for Boeing Model 777-300ER series
airplanes because of a novel or unusual design feature, special
conditions are prescribed under the provisions of Sec. 21.16.
Special conditions are initially applicable to the model for which
they are issued. Should the type certificate for that model be amended
later to include any other model that incorporates the same novel or
unusual design feature, or should any other model already included on
the same type certificate be modified to incorporate the same novel or
unusual design feature, these special conditions would also apply to
the other model under Sec. 21.101.
In addition to the applicable airworthiness regulations and special
conditions, Boeing Model 777-300ER series airplanes must comply with
the fuel-vent and exhaust-emission requirements of 14 CFR part 34 and
the noise certification requirements of 14 CFR part 36.
The FAA issues special conditions, as defined in 14 CFR 11.19, in
accordance with Sec. 11.38, and they become part of the type
certification basis under Sec. 21.101.
[[Page 12228]]
Novel or Unusual Design Features
The Boeing Model 777-300ER series airplanes will incorporate the
following novel or unusual design feature:
Single-occupant oblique seats with pretensioner restraint systems
to protect the passengers from head injuries.
Discussion
Boeing will install, in Model 777-300ER series airplanes, oblique
(side-facing) seats that incorporate seatbelts with a pretensioner
system at each seat place, to comply with the occupant injury criteria
of Sec. 25.562(c)(5).
The FAA has been conducting and sponsoring research on appropriate
injury criteria for oblique seat installations. However, the FAA
research program is not complete, and the FAA may update these criteria
as further research results are collected. To reflect current research
findings, the FAA issued policy statement PS-ANM-25-03-R1, ``Technical
Criteria for Approving Side-Facing Seats,'' November 12, 2012, which
updates injury criteria for fully side-facing seats, and policy
statement PS-AIR-25-27, ``Technical Criteria for Approving Oblique
Seats,'' July 11, 2018, to define injury criteria for oblique seats.
These policies provide background and technical information as well as
applicable injury criteria.
The installation of obliquely oriented passenger seats are novel
such that the current certification basis does not adequately address
occupant-protection expectations with regard to the occupant's neck and
spine for seat configurations that are positioned at an angle greater
than 18 degrees from airplane centerline.
The installation of passenger seats at angles of 18 to 45 degrees
from the aircraft centerline are unusual due to the seat occupant
interface with the surrounding furniture, and which introduce occupant
alignment and loading concerns with or without the installation of 3-
point or airbag-restraint systems.
FAA-sponsored research has found that an unrestrained flailing of
the upper torso, even when the pelvis and torso are nearly aligned, can
produce serious spinal and torso injuries. At lower impact severities,
even with significant misalignment between the torso and pelvis, these
injuries did not occur. Tests with the FAA Hybrid III anthropomorphic
test device (ATD) have identified a level of lumbar spinal tension
corresponding to the no-injury impact severity. This level of tension
is included as a limit in the special conditions. The spinal-tension
limit selected is conservative with respect to other aviation injury
criteria because it corresponds to a no-injury loading condition, but
the degree of conservatism is unknown because the precise spinal-
loading level at which injuries would begin to occur is unknown. The
small number of human-subject tests accomplished during this research
project limits the robustness of the selected tension limit.
Other restraint systems have been used to comply with the occupant
injury criteria of Sec. 25.562(c)(5). For instance, shoulder harnesses
have been widely used on flight-attendant seats, flight-deck seats, in
business jets, and in general-aviation airplanes to reduce occupant
head injury in the event of an emergency landing. Special conditions,
pertinent regulations, and published guidance exist that relate to
other restraint systems. However, the use of pretensioners in the
restraint system on transport-airplane seats is a novel design.
Pretensioner technology involves a step-change in loading
experienced by the occupant for impacts below and above that at which
the device deploys, because activation of the shoulder harness, at the
point at which the pretensioner engages, interrupts upper-torso
excursion. This could result in the head injury criteria (HIC) being
higher at an intermediate impact condition than that resulting from the
maximum impact condition corresponding to the test conditions specified
in Sec. 25.562. See condition 7 in these special conditions.
The ideal triangular maximum-severity pulse is defined in Advisory
Circular (AC) 25.562-1B. For the evaluation and testing of less-severe
pulses for purposes of assessing the effectiveness of the pretensioner
setting, a similar triangular pulse should be used with acceleration,
rise time, and velocity change scaled accordingly. The magnitude of the
required pulse should not deviate below the ideal pulse by more than
0.5g until 1.33 t1 is reached, where t1
represents the time interval between 0 and t1 on the
referenced pulse shape as shown in AC 25.562-1B. This is an acceptable
method of compliance to the test requirements of the special
conditions.
Additionally, the pretensioner might not provide protection, after
actuation, during secondary impacts. Therefore, the case where a small
impact is followed by a large impact should be addressed. If the
minimum deceleration severity at which the pretensioner is set to
deploy is unnecessarily low, the protection offered by the pretensioner
may be lost by the time a second larger impact occurs.
The existing special conditions for Boeing Model 777-300ER series
airplane oblique seat installations do not address oblique seats with
3-point restraint systems equipped with pretensioners. Therefore, the
proposed configuration requires special conditions.
Conditions 1 through 6 address occupant protection in consideration
of the oblique-facing seats. Conditions 7 through 10 address ensuring
that the pretensioner system activates when intended, to provide the
necessary protection of occupants. This includes protection of a range
of occupants under various accident conditions. Conditions 11 through
16 address maintenance and reliability of the pretensioner system,
including any outside influences on the mechanism, to ensure it
functions as intended.
These proposed special conditions contain the additional safety
standards that the Administrator considers necessary to establish a
level of safety equivalent to that established by the existing
airworthiness standards.
Applicability
As discussed above, these special conditions are applicable to
Boeing Model 777-300ER series airplanes. Should Boeing apply at a later
date for a change to the type certificate to include another model
incorporating the same novel or unusual design feature, these special
conditions would apply to that model as well.
Conclusion
This action affects only a certain novel or unusual design feature
on one model series of airplanes. It is not a rule of general
applicability.
List of Subjects in 14 CFR Part 25
Aircraft, Aviation safety, Reporting and recordkeeping
requirements.
Authority Citation
The authority citation for these special conditions is as follows:
Authority: 49 U.S.C. 106(f), 106(g), 40113, 44701, 44702 and
44704.
The Proposed Special Conditions
Accordingly, the Federal Aviation Administration proposes the
following special conditions as part of the type certification basis
for Boeing Model 777-300ER series airplanes.
In addition to the requirements of Sec. 25.562, passenger seats
installed at an angle 18 degrees and 45 degrees from the aircraft
longitudinal centerline must meet the following:
1. Body-to-Wall and Body-to-Furnishing Contact:
[[Page 12229]]
If a seat is installed aft of structure, such as an interior wall
or furnishings, and which does not provide a homogenous contact surface
for the expected range of occupants and yaw angles, then additional
analysis and tests may be required to demonstrate that the injury
criteria are met for the area which an occupant could contact. For
example if, in addition to a pretensioner restraint system, an airbag
device is present, different yaw angles could result in different
airbag-device performance, then additional analysis or separate tests
may be necessary to evaluate performance.
2. Neck Injury Criteria:
a. The seating system must protect the occupant from experiencing
serious neck injury. In addition to a pretensioner restraint system, if
an airbag device also is present, the assessment of neck injury must be
conducted with the airbag device activated, unless there is reason to
also consider that the neck injury potential would be higher for
impacts below the airbag-device deployment threshold.
b. The Nij (calculated in accordance with 49 CFR
571.208) must be below 1.0, where Nij = Fz/
Fzc + My/Myc, and Nij
critical values are:
Fzc = 1,530 lbs for tension
Fzc = 1,385 lbs for compression
Myc = 229 lb-ft in flexion
Myc = 100 lb-ft in extension
c. Peak Fz must be below 937 lbs in tension and 899 lbs
in compression.
d. Rotation of the head about its vertical axis relative to the
torso is limited to 105 degrees in either direction from forward
facing.
e. The neck must not impact any surface that would produce
concentrated loading on the neck.
3. Spine and Torso Injury Criteria:
a. The lumbar spine tension (Fz) cannot exceed 1,200
lbs.
b. Significant concentrated loading on the occupant's spine, in the
area between the pelvis and shoulders during impact, including rebound,
is not acceptable. During this type of contact, the interval for any
rearward (X direction) acceleration exceeding 20g must be less than 3
milliseconds as measured by the thoracic instrumentation specified in
49 CFR part 572, subpart E, filtered in accordance with SAE recommended
practice J211/1, ``Instrumentation for Impact Test-Part 1-Electronic
Instrumentation.''
c. The occupant must not interact with the armrest or other seat
components in any manner significantly different than would be expected
for a forward-facing seat installation.
4. Pelvis Criteria:
Any part of the load-bearing portion of the bottom of the ATD
pelvis must not translate beyond the edges of the seat bottom seat-
cushion supporting structure.
5. Femur Criteria:
Axial rotation of the upper leg (about the Z-axis of the femur per
SAE Recommended Practice J211/1) must be limited to 35 degrees from the
nominal seated position. Evaluation during rebound does not need to be
considered.
6. ATD and Test Conditions:
Longitudinal tests conducted to measure the injury criteria above
must be performed with the FAA Hybrid III ATD, as described in SAE
1999-01-1609. The tests must be conducted with an undeformed floor, at
the most-critical yaw cases for injury, and with all lateral structural
supports (e.g., armrests or walls) installed.
Note: Boeing must demonstrate that the installation of seats via
plinths or pallets meets all applicable requirements. Compliance
with the guidance contained in policy memorandum PS-ANM-100-2000-
00123, ``Guidance for Demonstrating Compliance with Seat Dynamic
Testing for Plinths and Pallets,'' dated February 2, 2000, is
acceptable to the FAA.
7. Head Injury Criteria (HIC):
The HIC value must not exceed 1000 at any condition at which the
pretensioner does or does not deploy, up to the maximum severity pulse
that corresponds to the test conditions specified in Sec. 25.562.
Tests must be performed to demonstrate this, taking into account any
necessary tolerances for deployment.
8. Protection During Secondary Impacts:
The pretensioner activation setting must be demonstrated to
maximize the probability of the protection being available when needed,
considering secondary impacts.
9. Protection of Occupants Other than 50th Percentile:
Protection of occupants for a range of stature from a 2-year-old
child to a 95th percentile male must be shown. For shoulder harnesses
that include pretensioners, protection of occupants other than a 50th
percentile male may be shown by test or analysis. In addition, the
pretensioner must not introduce a hazard to passengers due to the
following seating configurations:
a. The seat occupant is holding an infant.
b. The seat occupant is a child in a child-restraint device.
c. The seat occupant is a pregnant woman.
10. Occupants Adopting the Brace Position:
Occupants in the traditional brace position when the pretensioner
activates must not experience adverse effects from the pretensioner
activation.
11. Inadvertent Pretensioner Actuation:
a. The probability of inadvertent pretensioner actuation must be
shown to be extremely remote (i.e., average probability per flight hour
of less than 10-\7\).
b. The system must be shown not susceptible to inadvertent
pretensioner actuation as a result of wear and tear, or inertia loads
resulting from in-flight or ground maneuvers likely to be experienced
in service.
c. The seated occupant must not be seriously injured as a result of
inadvertent pretensioner actuation.
d. Inadvertent pretensioner activation must not cause a hazard to
the airplane, nor cause serious injury to anyone who may be positioned
close to the retractor or belt (e.g., seated in an adjacent seat or
standing adjacent to the seat).
12. Availability of the Pretensioner Function Prior to Flight:
The design must provide means for a crewmember to verify the
availability of the pretensioner function prior to each flight, or the
probability of failure of the pretensioner function must be
demonstrated to be extremely remote (i.e., average probability per
flight hour of less than 10-\7\) between inspection
intervals.
13. Incorrect Seat Belt Orientation:
The system design must ensure that any incorrect orientation
(twisting) of the seat belt does not compromise the pretensioner
protection function.
14. Contamination Protection:
The pretensioner mechanisms and controls must be protected from
external contamination associated with that which could occur on or
around passenger seating.
15. Prevention of Hazards:
The pretensioner system must not induce a hazard to passengers in
case of fire, nor create a fire hazard, if activated.
16. Functionality After Loss of Power:
The system must function properly after loss of normal airplane
electrical power, and after a transverse separation in the fuselage at
the most critical location. A separation at the location of the system
does not have to be considered.
Issued in Des Moines, Washington, on February 21, 2020.
James E. Wilborn,
Acting Manager, Transport Standards Branch, Policy and Innovation
Division, Aircraft Certification Service.
[FR Doc. 2020-04179 Filed 2-28-20; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4910-13-P