The United States Air Force, following a history of Structural deficiencies and loss of aircraft due to failures of engines from all manufacturers, developed a different philosophy for the design and life management of fracture critical components. This Air Force philosophy is based on a damage tolerance approach (DTA), which assumes that flaws of an initial size in all components in critical locations at the start of the service life. Because the flaw size is defined as just below that which can be reliably found by inspection, a rigorous approach to assessing NDE capability is demanded. Quantitative, statistically based NDE capabilities results are required.

These high-end quantified inspections have been implemented at Tinker and Kelly Air Force Bases. A "Requirements Versus Real Life" presentation will be given. It will start with how the requirements are derived, then the inspection development, and will finish with the implementation results.