https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PL15KbAxfKZE2DnUA9RNWn4IJQGR6VsBkF&v=EW7M4CDHIes
Cool video...I wish we had done the same video with all the F-111 and A-10s that came through the same type program depot maint, except prior to teardown they underwent a Neutron Radiography scan of the complete aircraft to detect corrosion, damage, voids etc and previous repairs.. Some airframes never flew again, they were in that bad shape... scary thought for the folks that flew them in....
norcal2: Could Neutron Radiography be used on old Ferraris, to check for the same things--"corrosion, damage, voids etc and previous repairs . . . " as well as tons of old Bondo? Thanks! Jacob Potts
Or the C-130s that seemed to snap their wings off on a regular basis when used for fire fighting? Still one of my favorite planes & glad to have gotten a (very short) ride in one.
I seem to remember that was a really old C-130A with a huge number of hours on the airframe. Likely had seen nothing like depot maintenance for decades. Civilians often cannot afford those kinds of checks. That is the only one I was aware of, but I believe they grounded the rest of them after that. Nasty accident. I picked up several F-111s at McClellan after depot maintenance. Often a chance to practice real emergency procedures since there were so many things R&R'd during the maintenance. Never lost one, though.
Brian- Yup, exactly. Last one was a fuselage fire indication. Fire pushbutton depressed, air source shut off, 12,000 lbs of JP-8 dumped to a forward weight distribution (dump affected by no air source, gravity only), uneventful landing. Clamp on an air duct had popped loose. All in a day's work and an extra day in Sacramento.
What blew me away was what appears to be *tiny* 'mounts' for the wings! Surely the two are somehow tied together during assembly? Empirically, to me at least, those little 'pins' just ain't gonna handle the loads involved (?) Cheers, Ian
You probably could, I dont know how well it would work with iron though, the cost would be very expensive..we used a 2 MW nuke reactor to power..the beauty was in seeing hidden corrosion/damage/aging between sealed cells as in composite bonding with titanium, aluminum, carbon fiber, etc...
