Ground_Support_September2020 - 37

MAINTENANCE

Sometimes very difficult to detect visually, serious "delamination" is one of the
most common types of composite damage
and results from a major impact force, such
as striking a hangar door or even a mid-air
bird strike.
This causes a separation or fracture of
the laminated reinforcement layers or plies.
According to data submitted to the Flight
Safety Foundation (FSF) by international
airlines, there are approximately 27,000
ground accidents annually, which amounts
to one incident per 1,000 departures. These
events, all of which are preventable, are
responsible for some $10 billion in damages, most of which has to be absorbed by
the owner/operator, as rectification costs
would generally fall below the threshold
for insurance claims.
While MROs have performed composite
repairs for years, these were usually only
carried out on the airframe if the part

was too large and/or expensive to remove.
Materials and technology have moved on
significantly, so repairs on the line are
increasingly seen as the norm, thereby
reducing static aircraft, also known as
aircraft on ground (AOG).
Composites in aircraft manufacture
came of age with the introduction of Boeing's 787 and the Airbus A350 XWB. Its
use has extended far beyond flaps, ailerons
and other control surfaces, engine nacelles
and empennage, to encompass the entire
forward wing structure and fuselage.
As well as achieving a reduction in
weight to improve fuel efficiency, another
major benefit of composite airframes
is a drastic reduction in corrosion and
fatigue-related maintenance.
In fact, Airbus claims a 60-percent
reduction in these tasks for the A350
XWB, cutting both the time required to
perform maintenance checks and the

total number of checks required over the
aircraft's service life. While the 787 and
A350 XWB are still very young, it is widely
acknowledged that the real test will come
in the next 5-10 years.
Having said that, irrespective of an aircraft's construction, airports are becoming increasingly congested, so the statistics
from the FSF are unlikely to reduce significantly. Where vehicles and equipment
need to be in close proximity, accidents will
still happen, despite initiatives designed to
prevent collisions on the ramp.
Working on aircraft with more expansive and increasingly complex composite
structures creates challenges for MRO
providers.
One is the need to perform an increasing
number of repairs on the aircraft versus
in a hangar.
Another is to reduce the duration of
repair without any compromise in qual-

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