Review of teardown process of foreign aircraft

Abstract

Due to various reasons, aircrafts are currently being operated to their design life and often beyond. In order to assess the true condition of structures of aging aircraft operated beyond their design life, structural teardowns have become more common in the aviation industry over the past decade. The present work presented the purpose and significance of aircraft structural teardown, reviewed the foreign aircraft structural teardowns over this decade, and illuminated a typical structural teardown process step-by-step. Finally, it gave a prospect to further development of the structural teardown of the aircraft. © 2014 Springer-Verlag.