Russian Practice to Provide Safe Operation of Airplane Structures with Long-Term Operation

The article presents some general approach to provide safe operation of aging aircraft structures including those with long-term operation (Fig. 1). Data on increased service life values of aged aircraft in Russia are given. Methods to detect and eliminate the structural corrosion damages are discussed. Statistical data on distribution of typical defects in civil aircraft structures are given including some results on statistical analyses of the duration of corrosion depth increase in wing and fuselage skins of IL-86 wide-body passenger aircraft. Authors outline the approaches to prevent the failure of aircraft structures due to widespread fatigue damage with provided statistics on the multiple site fatigue damages in panel joint of the upper wing surface of Il-62 M civil airplane that were identified while full-scale tests of aircraft and obtained from operation. In addition, the results of experimental research on degradation of strength, fatigue, and crack growth resistance of long-term-operated airframes are given.