NDTnet 1998 Aug, Vol.3 No.8

Abstract

Nimrod 2000 is the Royal Air Forces' Replacement Maritime Patrol Aircraft, which is required to give an operational life of at least 16,700 flying hours or 25-years service, beyong its current service life. The policy for Nimrod 2000 is to adopt a New build/Selective retention approach to the refurbishment of the airframe, resulting in an 'As New' aircraft. Hence, the NDT inspection philosophy is to undertake a 100% inspection of the retained structure using wide area scanning techniques. A variety of equipments were trialed prior to commencement of the project. In particular, NDT Sqn evaluated D-Sight, AndScan and MAUS III to enable a robust inspection strategy to be implemented at the commencement of the project. Due to the scale of the project, it was essential to balance the speed of data acquisition with the quality of information obtained, thereby ensuring a cost-effective inspection of the retained structure.

The paper will discuss the challenges that were faced in developing this strategy and the results that have been obtained from inspections of the first airframes to enter the refurbishment programme.

Abstract Source:
Book of Abstracts, 7th European Conference on Non-Destructive Testing, 26-29 May 1998, ISBN: 87-986898-0-00

Full-Text Source:
Proceedings of the 7th European Conference on Non-Destructive Testing, 26-29 May 1998, ISBN:

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