Apparatus for Characterizing Mixed Failure Modes in Cross Deck Pendants

The aircraft carrier Cross Deck Pendant (CDP) is vital to the operation of Naval Aviation. Their design, construction and operational use have been developed for many decades through a combination of engineering and operational experience. Currently in process changes to aircraft landing control systems and the introduction of unmanned aircraft the fleet air wings will introduce changes to the CDP wear profile as arrestments will be concentrated in a smaller area, on a fewer number of cables Dayton T Brown Inc. (DTB) is proposing to meet the Navy’s need for a time and cost efficient testing method for cross deck pendants that is capable of challenging current and future CDP configurations for the entire spectrum of loads, deflections and interactions between the CDP and aircraft. We have proposed two conceptual designs that will serve as starting points to be optimized and down selected to a final configuration. This final configuration’s design will be further refined and estimated construction costs and lifecycle costs estimated for consideration by NAVAIR.