FAR 23.2210 — Structural Design Loads
FAR 23.2210 explains how applicants must determine structural design loads for Part 23 airplanes across flight, ground, water, and parked operations.
In Plain English
FAR 23.2210 sets the rules manufacturers must follow when figuring out the structural design loads an airplane must be built to handle. This is a certification standard — it's why your airplane can survive the forces of flight, taxi, and even sitting tied down in a windstorm.
The applicant (typically the manufacturer) must:
- Determine the structural design loads caused by any pressures, forces, or moments — internal or external — that could realistically occur during:
- Flight operations
- Ground and water operations
- Ground and water handling (taxiing, towing, docking)
- While the airplane is parked or moored
- Evaluate these loads at all critical combinations of parameters, both on and within the structural design envelope.
- Base the magnitude and distribution of those loads on physical principles — meaning real engineering and physics, not guesses.
Why it matters: when you fly within the airplane's published limits (weight, CG, V-speeds, load factors), you are operating inside the envelope the engineers proved the airplane can structurally handle.
Regulation Text
14 CFR § 23.2210§ 23.2210 Structural design loads.
(a) The applicant must:
(1) Determine the applicable structural design loads resulting from likely externally or internally applied pressures, forces, or moments that may occur in flight, ground and water operations, ground and water handling, and while the airplane is parked or moored.
(2) Determine the loads required by paragraph (a)(1) of this section at all critical combinations of parameters, on and within the boundaries of the structural design envelope.
(b) The magnitude and distribution of the applicable structural design loads required by this section must be based on physical principles.
Oral Exam Questions a DPE Might Ask
Q1What does FAR 23.2210 require manufacturers to consider when determining structural design loads?
Per FAR 23.2210, the applicant must determine loads from any likely externally or internally applied pressures, forces, or moments occurring in flight, ground and water operations, ground and water handling, and while the airplane is parked or moored.
Q2Under FAR 23.2210, where in the structural design envelope must loads be evaluated?
FAR 23.2210(a)(2) requires loads to be determined at all critical combinations of parameters, both on and within the boundaries of the structural design envelope.
Q3How must the magnitude and distribution of structural design loads be determined under FAR 23.2210?
FAR 23.2210(b) requires that the magnitude and distribution of the applicable structural design loads be based on physical principles — meaning sound engineering and physics, not assumptions.
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Related Sections in Part 23