Flight Safety looks at recent
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developments in addressing
this ongoing problem for a large
percentage of the Australian
fleet, and home grown
technology to monitor aircraft
structural integrity which
is being adopted by major
international airlines.
The issue of ageing aircraft continues to be in the aviation safety
spotlight. And it’s there, centre stage, for the simple reason that a
large percentage of the 13,347 aircraft on the Australian register (total
as of 23 November 2008), are not getting any younger. According to
the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) report, ‘How old is
too old?’: ‘Very few new aircraft entered service, and much of the
existing fleet remained on the register’. While the report was based
on 2005 figures, the picture is substantially the same based on late
2008 figures.
What does the term ‘ageing aircraft’ mean? Chronological age
obviously, but also factors such as the number of flights and the
number of hours the aircraft has flown. When we think of ‘ageing
aircraft we often think first of the structure fatigue and corrosion.
But other parts such as wiring, seals and hydraulics also deteriorate
in their own ways.
The following table shows different measures of age, and the
particular safety concerns relevant to each.

AIRCRAFT
Measure age by …
years since type certification
years since manufacture
years since production stopped
hours of flying
number of flights
Source: Steve Swift – principal engineer, airframes CASA
9
AGEING AIRCRAFT
if the concern is …
the antiquity of the design standard
regulatory corporate memory
corrosion of metals
perishing of rubbers, plastics, seals, electrical insulation
rot of woods and fabrics
breakdown of glues
technical and spares support
industry familiarity
fatigue of wings and tailplanes
wear in engines and other moving parts
fatigue of pressurised fuselages, landing gears and flaps
 AGE
AGEING AIRCRAFT – THE
FIGURES TELL THE STORY
FIGU
As of 23 November last year, there were
13,4477 aircraft on the Australian civil aircraft
registeer. Of these, 773 were aircraft above
5700kkg, and 12,674 were in the general
aviatio
on (GA) category, or below 5700kg.

The air transport category aircraft fleet (those

above 5700kg) for the most part are of more
recentt manufacture, with an average age
of 15.44 years. This applies especially to the
mediu um size multi-engine turbofan aircraft
with a maximum take-off weight of between
50,000 0 and 100,000kg. This is largely as a
result of the demise of Ansett, and the entry of
the neew low-cost carriers, Virgin and Jetstar,
with thheir newer fleets of Airbus, Boeing 737s
and Embraers. Jetstar’s fleet of Airbus A320s,
10 321s and 330s, for example, has an average
age of 3.5 years; while the oldest of Virgin’s
fleet mainstay, the B-737 was manufactured
in 2001, and the bulk of their Embraers (12
out of the 15) were manufactured in 2008.
FSA JAN–FEB09

The smaller, multi-engine turboprops, with a

maximum take-off weight of 27,000kg or less,
are slightly older. In 2005, according to the
ATSB report ‘How old is too old?’ they had an
average age of 18 years.

However, it’s a different story for the GA fleet,

which represent 12,674 of the aircraft on the
register. The average age of such GA aircraft
is 28.3 years, with 3,240 or 25.6 per cent
falling into the 31–40 year-old category, and
2,766 or 21.8 per cent being 41 years plus. In
other words, almost 50 per cent (47.4) were
manufactured more than 31 years ago.

An analysis of figures from the 2008 report Air

transport services in regional Australia: trends and
accesss Report 115, by the Bureau of Infrastructure,
Transport and Regional Economics (BITRE)
shows that of the piston-driven aircraft, the
types with the highest number of passenger
movements at regional airports are, in order,
the Cessna 404, the PiperPA31-350, the Cessna
402 and the Piper PA31. The Cessna 402s and
404s on the register have an average age of 30.2
years, while the Piper – PA31s (the whole type)
have an average age of 31.3 years.
‘CASA has a long and proud history of contributing
to the international ‘old aircraft’ debate–indeed
CASA personnel were major contributors
to the writing of the International Civil
Aviation Organisation’s Continuing Airworthiness
Manual. And they contribute regularly to the
International Committee Aeronautical Fatigue
(ICAF) - see ‘For more information’ for the
‘Diamond’ papers. The third, First Diamond, on
the thorny issue of inspection thresholds, is due
for presentation at the next ICAF conference in
May, in the Netherlands. More recently, CASA
has been undertaking a number of initiatives to
address the challenge.
AGEING AIRCRAFT ONE OF
THE RISK AREAS
CEO Bruce Byron’s study: An assessment of
trends and risk factors in passenger air transport,
published in mid-2008 after more than a year
of research and taking submissions from all
sectors of the aviation industry, identified the
issue of (ageing) aircraft as the first of five main
risk areas, as well as:
Airports and infrastructure
Airspace and air traffic management
Personnel
Government agencies.
The report went on to say: ‘Not only are
these aircraft continuing to age, but many are
also being used more intensively due to the
Australian resources boom. While it is possible
to operate this fleet safely, there are a number
of potential safety issues to consider:
Smaller passenger transport organisations
operating ageing aircraft will need to deal with
aircraft ageing and fatigue issues that have
not been encountered before. Consequently
there can be no certainty about the quantity
or type of maintenance required to ensure a
high level of safety
It may be difficult to recruit sufficient,
qualified personnel to implement necessary
maintenance. Increasingly, environmental
concerns relating to emissions controls and
engine and aircraft efficiencies will place
greater operational pressures on operators of
ageing aircraft.
Manufacturers may decide not to support
certain older aircraft, resulting in the possible
grounding of aircraft used for passenger
transport. Many newer aircraft are too
large to be operated economically on low
density routes. Even where newer aircraft
were purchased, it may prove difficult to
attract qualified operational personnel
to maintain and operate them at levels
which are viable from both a safety and
economic perspective.
It may also be difficult for smaller operators
to buy newer generation aircraft suited to
their particular needs, as manufacturers have
increasingly retreated from traditional 9-19
seat aircraft production as they cater to the
increasing global regional aircraft market.
In 2007, CASA advised the regional airline
sector that increased focus is being placed
by CASA airworthiness and structures 11
experts on the adequacy of continuing
airworthiness programs for the ageing fleet.
Due to the uniquely high utilisation of small
AGEING AIRCRAFT
passenger aircraft in Australia, CASA is
assessing options for aircraft types that are
not supported by manufacturer approved
instructions for continuing airworthiness
(ICA) or guidance from the relevant foreign
National Airworthiness Authority.
A reduction in flying hours (and resulting
reductions in revenue) could result in a
reduction in the level of resources available
to the charter and low capacity regular
public transport sectors to meet challenges.
Emerging risks over the next three to five
years for these sectors include:
Critical shortages in experienced managers CASA is
and operational personnel
assessing
Ageing aircraft fleets
Growing, potentially inhibitive costs and
options for
resources devoted to compliance with aircraft types
environmental and security requirements
that are not
Increasing interface with larger aircraft at
non-towered airports. supported by
Many participants suggested that with manufacturer
limited capacity to invest in newer aircraft
and technology, and with fewer experienced approved
managers to provide guidance, this sector instructions
faces significant challenges that will need
to be managed. In 2006, CASA identified

12
CVM - Dr Dennis Roach displays the CVM
sensor. Photo: Sandia
FSA JAN–FEB09
We are planning to
develop a policy, have it
informed by these bilateral
discussions and, if all goes
to plan, resolved shortly
thereafter.
the low-capacity RPT sector as having the highest risk profile and in
2007, adjusted surveillance methods of a number of operators in this
category to align with that of the larger carriers.
Following the release of this review last year, working parties
have been set up to examine these five areas in more detail, to
make recommendations for risk mitigation, and advise CASA on
implementation strategies. The chairs of the five groups come from
the Aviation Safety Forum membership, which provides strategic,
high-level advice to CASA on aviation safety issues. Owen Batchelor,
with more than 42 years in the industry, and a range of experience in
areas as diverse as aircraft engineering, flying operations and aviation
safety regulation, is chairing the ‘aircraft’ working group. The group
will examine issues relating to both new and ageing aircraft: New
aircraft, as the review identified, also pose some new potential risks
for aviation safety, such as:
‘Oversight of the low-cost carrier concept, with low-cost carriers
using non-traditional airline models relating to operational
concepts, type, passenger demographics and country of origin
safety culture.
The ability of operators and organisations to obtain, train and manage
appropriately skilled pilots, engineers and support personnel.
The potential for unanticipated operational, maintenance and
procedural issues associated with the use of new technology.
The increased complexity of organisations operating multiple
aircraft types.’
The introduction of the A380, for example, as the last issue of Flight
Safety (November-December 2008) explains, has brought with it the
necessity for a completely different way of operating to cope with its
multi-faceted technology and grand scale.
However, in looking at the other side of the coin – ageing aircraft - the
‘aircraft’ group, Owen says, will not be involved in day-to-day issues of
ageing aircraft maintenance, but will adopt a more strategic, overview
approach to the issue, and develop a series of advice/briefing papers for
CASA. Membership of each of the working groups will be restricted to
a smaller number of specialists, each having the appropriate expertise.
The first meeting of the ‘aircraft’ working group is scheduled early
in 2009.

The issue is also being addressed through the regular meetings held
with civil aviation bodies around the world on issues of aviation safety
- bodies such as the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). According
to CASA’s deputy CEO, strategy and support, Shane Carmody, since ‘a
large number of the ageing aircraft [in question] are of American origin
(Cessnas, Pipers and Beechcraft, for example), ageing aircraft was a
topic at the last bilateral talks in Taipei and is firmly on the agenda for
the FAA bilateral which Australia hosts in April 2009. ‘We are planning
to develop a policy, have it informed by these bilateral discussions and,
if all goes to plan, resolved shortly thereafter,’ he explained.

CORROSION PREVENTION & CONTROL

RESEARCH 13
Two Australian tertiary institutions are also due to begin research into
aspects of corrosion prevention and control, co-funded by CASA., and
managed by CASA’s research committee. The first of these, looking at

AGEING AIRCRAFT
corrosion inhibiting compounds (CICs), is being undertaken by RMIT
in Melbourne, and will examine the influence of CICs on the life of
critical structural joints typical of those in small civil airliners.

This study will endeavour to identify the potential structural risks arising
from the increasing use of corrosion inhibiting compounds in aircraft.
While the use of these CICs can provide substantial benefits in retarding
corrosion development, and can reduce some forms of corrosion-
linked degradation in the joint, there is concern that in some cases, the
structural fatigue life of joints can be reduced by their use, and perhaps
more importantly, that cracking may occur in additional, unanticipated
locations, preventing crack detection.

It is expected that the results of the research should also be transferable

to large airliners and general aviation.

The second corrosion prevention and control project will be conducted

by the Monash University’s Cooperative Research Centre for Integrated
Engineering Asset Management (CIEAM), to examine corrosion sensor,
corrosion-fatigue interaction and the effect of corrosion preventative
compounds (CPC). Through the use of representative test specimens
that reproduce fleet cracking, and validated corrosion and fatigue
damage prognosis tools, preventative inspection programs can be
developed to retire or repair unsafe structure.

The project will also develop a simple test specimen for ranking CPCs,
and provide advice on their use. It is hoped that this research can
prevent the loss of aircraft and lives from known corrosion fatigue
effects prevalent in ageing aircraft structures, both civil and military.
 NEW TECHNOLOGY FOR OLD PROBLEM
Two historical aviation accidents – one which took place twenty years
ago and one which occurred forty years ago, have been influential in
driving significant developments in the approach to ageing aircraft.
14
Last year was the twentieth anniversary of an ‘ageing aircraft’
landmark, the explosive decompression accident involving Hawaii’s
Aloha Airlines Boeing 737-200. (See ‘Geriatric Jets’ Flight Safety
March-April 2008.) Corrosion and fatigue cracking caused six metre
FSA JAN–FEB09
of fuselage to blow off in flight, leading to the death of an attendant.
That aircraft, 19 years old, with 35,496 flying hours and 89,680 flight
cycles, was reaching the end of its economic life (designed for 20 years
according to Boeing), and had exceeded Boeing’s flight cycles (75,000).
The Aloha Boeing was the catalyst for focusing attention on the issue
of aircraft structural integrity, driving change in the management of
ageing aircraft.
The second, on 31 December 1968, was the impetus for retired airline pilot,
Ken Davey’s development of comparative vacuum technology, or CVM.
Twenty-six lives were lost when Vickers Viscount VH-RMQ plunged into
the ground near Port Headland, Western Australia while operating for
MacRobertson Miller Airlines. The resultant inquiry found the cause to be
metal fatigue – an undetected crack through the main wing spar. Ken
Davey was a pilot for the airline in 1968 and had flown VH-RMQ the
day before the starboard wing failed in flight, killing all on board.
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That accident inspired Davey to apply his
work on remanufacturing cathode ray tubes
(CRT) to aircraft structures. According to Mark
Vellacott, the managing director of Structural
Monitoring Systems (SMS), the Perth-based
company now commercialising CVM, ‘One
day Ken Davey saw that the vacuum in a
CRT was decreasing quickly, and traced this
back to a leak through a crack in the glass of
the tube.’
Comparative vacuum monitoring, where
sensors are mounted on aircraft structures
at sites where flaws are expected to develop,
grew from that original observation. Dr Dennis
Roach from the Sandia National Laboratories
in the United States, who along with SMS,
the FAA, Boeing and a number of US airlines
worked on validating the technology, explains
how the CVM sensor works. It’s ‘a thin, self-
adhesive rubber patch, ranging from dime
to credit-card-sized that detects cracks in the
underlying material. The rubber is laser-etched
with rows of tiny, interconnected channels, or
galleries, to which air pressure is applied. Any
propagating crack under the sensor breaches
the galleries, and the resulting change in
pressure is monitored.’
Potentially, CVM has applications both for
existing aircraft, and for new-build aircraft.
On ageing military and civil aircraft, CVM
can be retrofitted to provide in-situ structural
inspections, thereby eliminating the need for
a strip and rebuild to carry out an inspection.
In fact Boeing has included CVM in its Common
methods NDT manual. The technology has
the potential to substantially reduce fleet
maintenance and repair bills, estimated to
represent one-quarter of fleet operating costs.
Your online Aircraft Marketplace
CVM is one of several structural health monitoring (SHM) technologies
under assessment. Others examples Sandia describe as ‘piezoelectric
transducers which can interrogate material over long distances …
conducting paint whose resistance changes when cracks form underneath,’
and acoustic emission, where transducers ‘listen’ for acoustic signals
generated by cracks, delaminations or fibre breakage. What many of
these technologies have in common is the work being done to incorporate
the monitoring system into the structure of the aircraft. ‘SHM systems
can be arrayed in similar fashion to the human nervous system, with
sensors concentrated in key areas where loads are highest’. As Roach
says, ‘SHM is becoming more viable as the technologies mature’.
It is this aspect which excites Mark Vellacott. SMS has been working with
Airbus which has given CVM its ‘Technology ready’ certification. At the
Airbus Dresden test facility, CVM sensors were mounted on the full-scale
A380 fatigue test rig. Airbus also evaluated CVM for qualification of the A380
aircraft’s GLARE (GLAss fibre REinforced aluminium) materials and repair
strategies. According to Vellacott, ‘Traditional
NDI doesn’t work well on GLARE, because of
the interleaved metallic layers’. But, he says ‘The
future is in integrating this technology into new
aircraft designs’, with the potential to reduce
weight, because there is no longer the necessity
to have reinforced sections, in turn saving on
materials and fuel. ‘The integrity of the part can
be monitored safely by the technology.’
CASA, with other regulators, has closely
followed SHM’s development. ‘We want to
have the safety standards ready when the
technology’s ready. We want manufacturers
and airlines to have a clear regulatory pathway
to get SHM onto aircraft as soon as it’s safe
and cost-effective, Steve Swift concluded.

15
Fo
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nfforma
m tiion
‘Geriatric Jets’ Flight Safety Australia, March- www.casa.gov.au/fsa
April 2008

AGEING AIRCRAFT
‘Time flies’ Flight Safety Australia, www.casa.gov.au/fsa
November-December 2003

How old is too old? The impact ATSB report, published www.atsb.gov.au/publications/
of ageing aircraft on aviation February 2007
safety’
Rough diamond. Two regulators Bob Eastin (FA
FAA) & Steve Swift Downloadable from www.casa.gov.au
review damage tolerance. (CASA) 2005
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