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Discusses the need for structural maintenance programmes to check the airworthiness of planes and detect damage. Describes the prevention and control of corrosion along with its causes, and examines aviation safety assurance programmes.

Discusses the need to combat wear and corrosion, and to analyse wear types with regard to weight, longer working life, demands on performance, etc. Provides details of various surface coatings and debates their properties. Examines several R&D programmes on new‐generation coatings. Concludes that surface‐coating engineers should be part of the design team in the manufacturing process.

A new corrosion protection system developed at B.A.C. Weybridge was first introduced on Vanguard aircraft and has remained in use almost unchanged up to the VC10 and B.A.C.1 11 aircraft which are being produced at this time. The system represented a complete change from previous ones, both in materials and methods of application and was the result of a very considerable amount of research into the limitations of the protective methods used up to that time. Through these investigations it became evident that insufficient emphasis had been placed on the importance of organic materials in corrosion protection and that the paints then in use failed to give satisfactory service due to lack of adequate‐fluid resistance and an inability to withstand repeated flexing and straining of the metal substrate without cracking of flaking. Hence the paint had to be resistant to all anticipated contaminants, including freight spillage, over the entire temperature envelope of the aircraft and had to be sufficiently adherent and flexible to withstand deformation of the substrate up to the point of metal failure. Long term protection from corrosion and compatibility with other forms of protection e.g. sealants, jointing compounds, etc. was also required, as well as an ability to withstand casual damage during service and maintenance. This lead to the decision (hat the Vanguard was to be an all‐painted aircraft and that the many and often conflicting requirements of the paint could only be met by a polyamide‐cured epoxy material. Having thus established the basic concept, consideration can now be given to the detailed requirements.

Economic and market conditions have resulted in the use of commercial jet transport airplanes well beyond their design service objective (DSO). Air transport industry consensus is that older jet transport airplanes will continue to be in service despite an anticipated substantial increase in the required maintenance. Based on economical considerations, established operators may replace their airplanes beyond DSO with new ones. At the same time these older airplanes are sold to operators with little or no knowledge and experience of the aging airplane maintenance programs. Discusses the damage tolerance concept, its relation to airplane age and its evolution that is fail‐safe to damage tolerance based maintenance certification for jet transport airplanes. Also, this paper will discuss a process for upgrading structural inspection programs for older airplanes to damage tolerance standard per MSG‐3 Rev. 2 analysis. Finally, sub‐surface corrosion on principal airplane structures and its effect on airplane safety will be discussed.

A monthly feature giving news of recent Government and professional appointments, industrial changes and business appointments, etc.. Aluminium Laboratories Limited, of Banbury, Oxfordshire, announce the appointments of Dr R. T. Parker as Director of Research and Mr George Forrest as Associate Director of Research of their Banbury laboratories. Dr Parker succeeds Mr G. H. Field, C.B.E., who has retired from active service.

An overview of the advances in understanding the impact of corrosion on structural integrity and the associated tools available for inspection, assessment and repair is presented. A comprehensive set of these tools would allow for a significant shift in aircraft maintenance concepts.

HELD in London the third European Aerospace Conference was organized by the Royal Aeronautical Society and similar professional bodies in France, Germany and Italy and provided an opportunity for wide ranging discussions embracing the operation, maintenance, regulation and technological considerations governing civil aviation today. The Conference was subtitled Problems, Solutions and Actions and many of these were aired by the manufacturers, operators and airport authorities who are directly affected by whatever regulations and constraints may be imposed from time to time.

This paper aims to reproduce the electrical connector intermittent fault behaviours with step-up vibration stress while maintaining the integrity of the product.

A dynamic model of an electrical connector under vibration is established for contact resistance analysis. Next, the dynamic characteristics of contact resistance are analysed, and cumulative damage theory is used to calculate the damage under different stresses during the intermittent fault reproduction test. To reduce damage and improve efficiency, the step-up stress is used for the reproduction test.

The proposed method can reproduce the intermittent fault behaviour, and the step-up stress test is more efficient than the constant stress test.

Step-up stress is used for intermittent fault reproduction, and the quantitative relationships between intermittent fault and product damage can be further studied.

It is expected that the proposed methodology can help engineers to reproduce the intermittent fault behaviours to facilitate the detection and diagnosis of intermittent fault and to improve equipment safety.

The mechanism of electrical connector reproduction is analysed and the step-up stress test is used for intermittent fault reproduction.

On this page in our May issue we drew attention to the fact that the Battelle Laboratories were to conduct a study into powder coatings, as a result of the burgeoning interest in the material. As a further indication of the ever‐growing interest, the organisers of the 2nd International Powder Technology Conference and Exhibition have reported considerable worldwide interest.