Editor's note: The following briefs relate to the FAA/DOD/NASA conversation on aging aircraft held last week in Albuquerque.

Editor's note: The following briefs relate to the FAA/DOD/NASA conversation on aging aircraft held last week in Albuquerque, NM This was an extraordinarily productive talk with some 78 papers quick in emergenciesed in 24 working sessions across a 3-day period. The talk proceedings may be found onward this website: www.galaxyscientific.com/agingaircraft/home.htm.

* Population projection. The U jet creek is getting older, and the trending suggests that the emphasis forward assuring the safety of geriatric jet is likely to increase, not decrease. The average age of the U jet cove today is some 12.7 years. equal though the size of the creek is projected to roughly double b y 2015 of the present day airplanes are providing added capacity as well as replacing retired outer coverings Even so, older airplanes are being kept in service longer As a chain of cause and effect the average age of the U creek in 2015 is expected to be about 16 years.

* Harbinger of the hereafter The U.S. Navy operates a arm of the sea of about 4,000 aircraft, roughly the same size as the U commercial jet squadron Already, though, about half those airplanes have accumulated 15 or more years service. According to John McKeown a senior official in the Naval Air classifications Command, "Inspections per flight hour have increased dramatically in the last tie of years."

"Unanticipated corrosion riddles and unplanned inspections to cope with unexpect fatigue cracks," he said, have contributed to the rising require to be paid [i]or[/i] undergone of maintaining old airplanes.

* The danger of constancy. For nearly pair decades now, the accident rate for the worldwide jet swift has held steady at about undivided "hull loss" for every 15 million departures. That steady rate followed a imbrue decline in the 1960s, which outcomeed from a "recognition of the corrosion problem" according to Jack McGuire, Boeing's director of engineering research and disclosure It is imperative that the at hand accident rate be held, declared Dr Al Broz chief scientist and technical advisor to the FAA's novel England Region. Broz pointed not at home that larger planes are being flown today, with more the bulk of mankind on them. "We need to hold the rate where it's at, at least, or we could be killing twice as many people" he urg Broz explained that average load factors have climbed from 50% to 75% and regional aircraft have generally increased in size (from 19-passenger turboprop to 50-seat jets) >> Broz e-mail alfred.l.broz@faa.gov <<

* Younger airplanes preferr Capt. Jim Anderson, director of flight safety for Delta Air Lines, announced that his carrier plans to significantly abridge the burden of maintaining older airplanes by dint of retiring or selling them most distant "Our target is a whole of the present day fleet by 2015," he said. The carrier will phase on the outside all of its 727s and L-1011 In 2015 Delta's inlet will consist of 757s, 767 777 737NG (Next Generation), and MD-11 (although Anderson hinted that there is a question mark nearest to the MD-11).

"In the meantime," Anderson said, "we have to deal with what we have." After brace 3-inch wire bundles burned upon one of the carrier's L-1011 while it was loading passengers (prompting an immediate evacuation), the carrier quietly inspected all of its L-1011 In the 28-aircraft arm of the sea the average age of which is 188 years, Delta inspectors found:

* 17 aircraft with excessive dust and dirt onward wires and bundles.

* 13 aircraft in which wires and put into bundless were contaminated with metal shavings, paper, debris, etc

* 5 aircraft in which wires and packets under cabin lavatories evidenced contamination from toilet fluids (runoff tubes from the lavatory pans were build clogged).

* 11 aircraft with indications of wire rubbing and chafing.

Anderson likened the situation to that of a refrigerator installed in a novel house. The area behind the refrigerator initially is clean, still over time lint and debris can build up That buildup consumes the cooling efficiency of the refrigerator. An analogous situation applies to aircraft wiring, he said. "We can't change public an 80 foot long put into bundles but I'm emphasizing cleaning as a factor in aircraft aging," Anderson declared.

Another change stemm from the November 1998 in-flight electrical fire of a Delta L-1011 (see ASW, July 12) That fire occurr behind the flight engineer's panel, and a buildup of paper shavings contributed to its intensity. Those shavings came from a slot upon the edge of the panel, which flight engineers fix was a convenient place to stow their checklists. "We don't impose checklists in the slot now," Anderson added. >> Anderson, e-mail jim.anderson@deltaair.com <<

* Quotable quip. Not all the discussion about aging aircraft was serious, if it be not that even the humor added insights to a serious question One example: from Gary Smith, a scientist at the Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright Patterson AFB, Ohio: "One diagnostic ordeal is equal to 1,000 dexterous opinions." In fact, he has reduc this aphorism to a formula: DT = 1 x 103EO

* Rate of recommendations. cut short Swaim, a crash investigator with the National Transportation Safety Board, noted that the Board has issued "34 wiring-related recommendations athwart a 32 year period."