Continuing trends toward reduced procurement of new aircraft is forcing the United States Air Force (USAF) to extend the operational life of its current aircraft. In the past, the USAF operator was able to replace fleet aircraft on a fairly regular basis. This process has been drastically altered by the significant reductions in the Defense Department budget as a result of the end of the Cold War. The requirement to extend the fleet's operational life is placing greater importance on the ability to find, characterize, and ameliorate the deleterious effects of operation and maintenance. In addition, many aircraft are being asked to operate with changed mission requirements that were not envisioned when they were originally procured. The life management of the aging fleet is interwoven with the ability to utilize nondestructive evaluation (NDE) to identify and characterize changes in the materials and structures throughout their lifetime.
Life management of aging Air Force aircraft: NDE perspective
Nondestructive Evaluation of Aging Aircraft, Airports, Aerospace Hardware, and Materials ; 1995 ; Oakland,CA,United States
Proc. SPIE ; 2455
1995-07-07
Conference paper
Electronic Resource
English
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