Aircraft Aging

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Addressing the challenges of aging aircraft is greatly needed in aviation maintenance to increase the serviceability and reliability of both military and civilian aircraft around the world. There are many different ways to detect and ways to slow down the aging process. Over time aircraft will age just the same as a human would and as the years go by there are more needs for inspections to extend the life of the aircraft, but it is impossible to completely prevent the effects of aging.

Corrosion is by far the greatest concern when it comes to aging aircraft. Corrosion is a deformity that occurs at the surface and subsurface of the structure and components of aircraft. This creates a greater need for advance techniques and inspections used to detect these deformities. Some techniques talked about in this paper that are used to detect corrosion are non-destructive testing, and different scheduled inspections.

Age also plays a huge roll in the performance of all aircraft systems. Over time aircraft components will begin to malfunction and could eventually lead to aircraft accidents. Some systems talked about will be the fuel system, oil system, and electrical system. There are many ways to detect these malfunctions before a serious accident occurs.

To prevent widespread fatigue damage requires aircraft makers and airlines to

establish the number of takeoff and landing cycles or the number of hours a plane can

operate without risk of fatigue damage (Chernoff, 2010). To determine this, aircraft

have flight logs in them that record the number of hours they've been flown. This is

usually the marker used to determine the age of an aircraft. If the airframe has not been

stressed because it sat around...

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...n administration has also issued numerous regulations and 100 airworthiness directives to address this aging issue (Chernoff, 2010). So even though aircraft will always continue to age, as long as continue to monitor aircraft aging and understand its effect we can try to limit the accidents caused by aging problems.

Works Cited

Edward G. Tripp. (2001). Aging Aircraft and Coming Regulations. Retrieved February 2, 2011, from http://www.iasa.com

Charlotte Adams. (2008). The Science of Aging Aircraft. Retrieved January 20, 2011, from http://www.aviationtoday.com

Allan Chernoff. (2010). FAA Moving to Prevent Aging Aircraft Dangers. Retrieved February 10, 2011, from http://articles.cnn.com/2010-11-12/travel/fatigue.damage

Rick Young. (N.D.). Aviation Safety Program. Retrieved January 15, 2011, from http://www.aeronautics.nasa.gov/nra_pdf/aad_technical_plan_c1.pdf

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