Cost Effective Safety from Full System Teardowns

Abstract:

This paper describes techniques for affordable teardowns on aircraft to extract condition data for assessment of system integrity durability and damage tolerance. Studies of fleet accidents show a significant proportion are due to failures in systems other than structures and engines but knowledge of their degradation with usage and age are less well understood. Forensic results from a full teardown provide robust data that supplement design and service data to support safety assessments. Fleet retirement is a golden opportunity to carry out a full system teardown if it is cost-effective. This permits a condition assessment of all critical systems after decades of Australianspecific configuration, roles and environment. Rapid dismantling techniques that do not destroy key information are being refined. Performance measurements are being compared with original design specifications and forensic data can be compared with non-destructive inspection data.

• Periodical: Advanced Materials Research (Volumes 891-892)
• Pages: 1084-1089
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.4028/www.scientific.net/AMR.891-892.1084
• Online since: March 2014
• Authors: Robert Boykett
• Keywords: Aircraft, Airworthiness, Fleet Management, Risk, System Integrity, Teardown

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