Section 1.4.0. Sustainment/Aging Aircraft
The life of an aircraft is determined by its operational
capabilities and maintenance costs rather than its initial design life goal.
The guidelines of MIL-HDBK-1530 call for a Force Structural Maintenance Plan
(FSMP) that is the basis of planned maintenance actions for a fleet. If
unanticipated structural problems are identified due to design deficiencies or
unplanned usage, the FSMP is updated using the deterministic damage tolerance
methods of MIL-HDBK-1530. However, the effects of usage and time will cause
fatigue cracks and corrosion damage to initiate and grow, compromising
structural integrity of the fleet. Because of the uncertain nature of the sizes
of the cracks that are in the fleet and the need to evaluate the interaction of
cracks in multiple elements, the assessment of the effect of a population of
fatigue cracks is typically made using probabilistic risk analysis. When such
widespread fatigue cracking, corrosion, or use beyond the original life goals
cause the deterministically based maintenance plan to be changed to ensure
adequate structural integrity, the fleet is considered to be aging [Lincoln,
2000].
Sustainment is the process by which an aging aircraft fleet is
maintained in an operational state. Sustainment encompasses both the actual
maintenance of the structures and the analyses and tests needed to plan the
maintenance tasks. As such, damage tolerance analyses are an integral part of
sustainment.