Life extension and airworthiness - We are all being asked to work longer before retirement - even military aircraft!

Abstract

The effective management of risk coupled with maintaining a platforms operational capability beyond that which was initially envisaged by the initial design intent, in the face of a changing financial, organisational, technological and regulatory environment is a difficult and challenging activity. There have been a number of military and civil procurement and modification programmes which have faltered as a result of these issues and factors, e.g. the Chinook MK3 which did not receive airworthiness certificates due to issues with the avionics software (which have now been addressed by MK4). This paper discusses some of the key factors, the associated risks and their relationship to each other which need to be considered for aircraft life extension programmes. This paper also discusses the implications associated with retrospective application of rules and standards.