Project officer's handbook for the certification of Increased Gross Weights on carrier based airplanes

This thesis was developed to provide project officers and project engineers with a useful and effective guide in the certification of Increased Gross Weights (IGW) on carrier based airplanes. The guidelines were presented in a new and informative project officer's handbook that was designed to provide the project officer with a detailed yet simple reference work to assist in proper planning, preparation, and coordination of a successful IGW test program. From the author's personal experiences as a successful IGW project officer, this handbook has answered all the critical questions that specifically arise from an IGW program. For the solutions, this handbook has taken the project officer and engineer all the way from the infant stages of an IGW test program to the structural demonstration and shipboard qualification of an airplane. It was concluded that this project officer's handbook has excellent potential for use in today's Navy test environment. With discussion of the recently completed E-2C Hawkeye aircraft IGW program results, it is hoped that the practices and philosophies taught in this handbook will significantly improve a test teams capability at completing an IGW certification program. The utilization of this handbook should provide a greater understanding of how to properly execute an IGW test program for any carrier based airplane.