Maintaining the safety of an aging fleet of aircraft

Abstract

Verbatim from NASA NTRS. Not paraphrased, not summarized.

The current status of the Douglas Aging Fleet is examined in light of increasing concern for the possibility of the onset of widespread cracking and recent industry activity to minimize the concern. A fleet monitoring program together with an augmented maintenance program is proposed as a possible means to reduce the concern. Six candidate options for maintenance program augmentation are examined which have been shown to be effective in detection of widespread fatigue damage. A brief example of how this system might be applied to the DC-9 Fleet is presented.

Author

• A. W. Hoggard Douglas Aircraft Company

Keywords

• Aging Aircraft
• Structural Airworthiness
• Civil aviation