Crashworthiness of the Flying-V Aircraft Concept with VerticalDrop Test SimulationsM. Desiderio, M.J. Schuurman, R.C. Alderliesten and S.G.P. Castro∗.Department of Aerospace Structures and Materials, Faculty of Aerospace Engineering, Delft University of Technology,Kluyverweg Street No. 1, 2629HS, Delft, The Netherlands.The following presents a preliminary assessment on the crash characteristics of the Flying-Vaircraft, an unconventional configuration consisting of a V-shaped flying wing with an oval cabincross section, currently being actively researched at TU Delft. Successively, the preliminaryassessment is carried out by means of design of experiments, where four crash structureconcepts are defined and evaluated. Virtual drop tests of the Flying-V typical fuselage sectionare performed while measuring the energy absorption of the fuselage, and the dynamic responseindex (DRI) and selected locations. The finite element modeling scheme is validated using theFokker F-28 Fellowship typical section, for which physical drop test data is available. Whilea crashworthy typical section for the Flying-V could not be designed, it has been found thata conventional crash concept with a total of four oblique floor struts is able to absorb 72%of the total kinetic energy, with a DRI reaching 18.2 units. A sensitivity analysis shows thatthe bending stiffness of the frames has a critical role in the crashworthiness of the Flying-V,due to the increase in rigidity following pressurization loads of the oval fuselage section andthat, additionally, the structural simplifications applied in the context of the research likelyrendered the results overly-conservative. A 16% frame thickness reduction resulted in a DRIof 16.2 units, just above the 16 units typically required by regulators. Recommendations forfuture work include a structural sizing optimization where requirements from crashworthinessand airworthiness can be evaluated simultaneously as design constraints, enabling design forcrashworthiness at the preliminary design.