- Author
-
Westfield, W. T.
- Title
- Corrosion of Fire-Damaged Aircraft. Final Report.
- Coporate
- Galaxy Scientific Corp., Pleasantville, NJ
- Sponsor
- Federal Aviation Administration, Atlantic City International Airport, NJ
- Report
-
DOT/FAA/CT-94/89,
April 1995,
37 p.
- Distribution
- Available from National Technical Information Service
- Contract
- DTFA03-89-C-00043
- Keywords
-
aircraft safety
|
fire damage
|
corrosion
|
extinguishment
|
investigations
|
aging (metallurgy)
|
Boeing 727 aircraft
- Identifiers
- Service Difficulty Report (SDR); incidence of corrosion in fire damaged aircraft; presentation of study data for the Boeing 727 aircraft; operational cycles
- Abstract
- The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Western Regional Office issued a Significant Activity Report concerning a B727 that experienced extensive corrosion, well beyond what would have normally been expected for an aircraft with its operational time and cycles. This incident triggered interest in the possible connection between fire, extinguishment, and subsequent increased incidence of corrosion. The FAA Technical Center requested an investigation of the potential for this connection to exist by performing an analysis of available data. Trends of aircraft operational hours, cycles, fire occurrence, and corrosion reports were developed. Data extneding from 1974 to the present were accessed from the Aviation Research and Support database and the Service Difficulty Reports (SDRs) database, respectively. Sufficient data to support a connection between fire and subsequent related corrosion were not available. Twenty-two aircraft were analyzed and none exhibited a pattern of corrosion that could definitely be associated with fire smoke or extinguishment. This result was supported by consideration of the intensity of the fire, the extinguishing agent and the time between the occurrence of the fire and the corrosion reports. The study of SDRs indicates a significant increase in corrosion related SDRs beginning in 1986 and continuing through 1992. This increased SDR activity may be attributed to the overall aging of the jet fleet; the Aloha 737 fuselage fialure in April 1988; and the issuance of aging aircraft corrosion inspection ADs in 1990.