Recommended Processes and Best Practices for Nondestructive Inspection (NDI) of Safety-Of-Flight Structures
Abstract
This document outlines critical processes, guidelines, and best practices for the nondestructive inspection (NDI) of safety-of-flight aircraft (SOF) structures. More specifically, this document provides rationale for requiring rigor in the definition, development, demonstration and implementation of NDI for United States Air Force (USAF) SOF aircraft structures. Topics include the critical role of NDI in the Aircraft Structural Integrity Program, defining inspection requirements, procedure development, capability estimation, procedure qualification, training, certification, equipment controls and organizational structures. It is intended to be a "living" document to be updated, replaced or made obsolete by other documents at any time as the body of knowledge within the Air Force NDI community evolves. Although this document is intended as a compilation of best practices and recommended processes, it is not intended to state requirements or be referenced as for contractual purposes. The driving motivation is to improve the effectiveness of United States Air Force NDI operations. The catalyst for this document evolved in early 2004 with the discovery of several serious field and depot inspection escapes on multiple aircraft systems. A series of investigations concluded that the USAF NDI program had significant institutional deficiencies that required immediate attention. These activities culminated in the 2006 Air Force Nondestructive Inspection Summit in Dayton, Ohio that ultimately led to the formation of a working group devoted to compiling these lessons-learned. The intended audiences are those stakeholders responsible for defining, developing, validating and implementing inspection processes to protect the safety of critical aircraft structures and structural components. Readers are expected to be familiar with the general concepts of nondestructive
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Oct 01, 2008
- Accession Number
- ADA493997
Entities
People
- David Campbell
- John Brausch
- Lawrence Butkus
- Michael Paulk
- Tommy Mullis
Organizations
- Air Force Research Laboratory