Structural Airworthiness and Life Extension of Aging Aircraft

Dear Colleagues,

The current approach to assessing and maintaining the airworthiness of both civil and military aircraft has evolved as a result of a number of high-profile incidents, viz: the 1954 Comet failures, the 1958 B-47 accidents, the 1969 F-111 accident, the 1988 Aloha Boeing 737 accident, etc. The Comet failures resulted in the adoption of fail-safe design; the B-47 accidents resulted in the United States Air Force Aircraft Structural Integrity Program; the F-111 failure led to the introduction of damage tolerance design requirements for military aircraft; the Aloha Boeing 737 accident highlighted the importance widespread fatigue damage and subsequently led to the FAA introducing the concept of a limit of validity (LOV).

That said, the field is still developing and maturing. As such, this Special Issue focuses the state of the art in assessing and extending the life of both civil and military fixed and rotary wing aircraft and unmanned aerial vehicles (drones and loyal wingman aircraft).

Indeed, in March 2019 the US Under Secretary, Acquisition and Sustainment mandated that the US DoD use Additive Manufacturing (AM) to “enable the transformation of maintenance operations and supply chains, increase logistics resiliency, and improve self-sustainment and readiness for DoD forces.” Consequently, this Special Issue will also address the use of AM replacement parts, AM repairs, friction stir welding and laser shock peening to extend operational life.

As such this Special Issue aims to attract World Leading Researchers to address issues covering:

1. Fleet airworthiness assessment/management;
2. Durability and damage tolerance assessment (including full-scale and laboratory (coupon) testing and computational aspects);
3. Crack growth in operational aircraft and in full-scale fatigue tests;
4. The effect of environmental degradation on airworthiness;
5. AM parts and limited life AM replacement parts;
6. The effect of as built and surface finish on the durability of AM parts;
7. AM repairs, such as cold spray and laser additive repairs;
8. The use of laser shock and friction stir welding to enhance durability.

Issues associated with metallic, composite and bonded airframes and limited life replacement parts are encouraged. 

Prof. Dr. Rhys Jones
Guest Editor

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