The popularity of ultra-light aircraft has been increasing in the recent years among private hobby pilots, due to its lower maintenance costs and good flying properties. The use of high performance materials like carbon fibre and the integration of rescue systems, for instance airframe parachute system, have improved the acceptance of this type of aircrafts. However, this type of rescue systems requires a minimum altitude to guarantee a proper deployment. Moreover, statics show that the most accidents take place near the ground during takeoff or landing, where the use of the most rescue systems is not any more possible.

Due to the limited space and allowed MTOW of ultralight aircrafts, an integral design approach shall be followed, and the crash behaviour of the structure shall be investigated in early stages of the development in order to improve the crashworthiness of the aircraft. This approach was applied to the development of the AIRector aircraft and validated within the project ULtrasicher funded within the EFRE-program. The crashworthiness of the initial design was numerically investigated and structure weak points were identified. Afterwards modification of the laminate lay-up and the use of new materials, like carbon-aramid hybrid layers, in critical areas were investigated using the explicit solver Abaqus. After various iterations a crashworthy design of the structure was reached and the integrity of the structure was proven numerically. Afterwards a test structure was manufactured and a pendulum test set-up consisting of three auto cranes to create the pendulum swing was planed and realised to verify the proposed design. The crash test was performed successfully, high consistancy with the numerical results was reached and the structure showed the expected crash behaviour.