Comments for rizbang http://www.rizbang.com Rz's Blog Sun, 13 Jan 2008 23:31:37 -0500 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 Comment on F15 grounding is an issue of maintanence not defense by scott http://www.rizbang.com/archives/12/comment-page-1#comment-245 scott Sun, 13 Jan 2008 23:31:37 +0000 http://www.rizbang.com/archives/12#comment-245 There are two interesting things about the F-15 grounding. One is that many are still talking about grounding the entire fleet permanently when we know there are 9 aircraft with actual cracks, and that the testing for this has been completed, at least in the short term (a recurring check may be required). The second is that the longerons involved do not match the specification prints for the parts involved. This would, therefore, appear to fall back onto Boeing (purchaser of McD-D-MAC)to rectify. The parts involved are not difficult to construct, and while it is a royal pain to replace them, it is not impossible, merely time consuming. With this fix in place it should be possible to extend the life of the F-15 into the 2030's. At 500,000 per fix, and 427 aircraft in the MSIP program, you are looking at under the cost of 10 F-22's (or 20 at incremental cost) for the cost of 427 F-15's in service. http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/aircraft/f-15-life.htm Of course, the third interesting thing is that the F-22 has similar problems... http://www.airforcetimes.com/news/2007/11/airforce_raptor_rust_071112w/ There are two interesting things about the F-15 grounding. One is that many are still talking about grounding the entire fleet permanently when we know there are 9 aircraft with actual cracks, and that the testing for this has been completed, at least in the short term (a recurring check may be required). The second is that the longerons involved do not match the specification prints for the parts involved. This would, therefore, appear to fall back onto Boeing (purchaser of McD-D-MAC)to rectify. The parts involved are not difficult to construct, and while it is a royal pain to replace them, it is not impossible, merely time consuming. With this fix in place it should be possible to extend the life of the F-15 into the 2030’s. At 500,000 per fix, and 427 aircraft in the MSIP program, you are looking at under the cost of 10 F-22’s (or 20 at incremental cost) for the cost of 427 F-15’s in service.

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/aircraft/f-15-life.htm

Of course, the third interesting thing is that the F-22 has similar problems…

http://www.airforcetimes.com/news/2007/11/airforce_raptor_rust_071112w/

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