Abstract Aircraft arresting systems (AAS) are critical safety components required for the operation of fighter aircraft, particularly during aborted take-off or emergency landing scenarios. The most significant challenge in the development and certification of these systems is the high-cost full-scale dead-load testing required to verify their performance under various aircraft mass and entry-speed conditions. This study presents a novel and fully domestic test system that reproduces the kinetic energy input defined in the MIL-STD-3036 standard by using high-inertia flywheels driven by electric servomotors. The proposed system stores the required energy in dual flywheels and transfers it to the arresting barrier through a controlled release mechanism, thereby replicating real aircraft-entry conditions without the need for jet engines, runways or physical dead-load vehicles. The study focuses on the conceptual design and analytical modelling of the proposed system. Dynamic analyses were conducted to determine flywheel geometry, material selection, allowable stresses, rotational speeds and energy absorption capacity. The system was shown to meet the highest energy level defined in the MIL-STD-3036 test matrix, while being designed to enable accurate and controlled evaluation of arresting force, torque response, angular deceleration and stopping time. Experimental validation has not yet been conducted and is planned as part of future work. The results demonstrate that the proposed test system provides an economical, repeatable and safe alternative to conventional dead-load tests and enables performance evaluation, maintenance verification and certification of AAS. Furthermore, the system offers a scalable platform for future arresting technologies, including those designed for unmanned aircraft and next-generation military platforms.
Kelek et al. (Wed,) studied this question.