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RAF Hawk life extension program
Technical Paper
1998-11-0034
Sector:
Language:
English
Abstract
The Hawk aircraft entered service with the RAF in 1976 and, as
it is now reaching the end of its original design life, work is
underway to achieve an out-of-service date of 2010. The associated
studies are divided into 2 parts to facilitate the required life
extension. Initial studies provided a series of interim life
extensions to allow fleet availability to be sustained in the short
term and, when concluded, will detail the work required to support
a target full-life extension of 200 Fatigue Index (FI), 10200
Flying Hours (FH) and 25000 Landings (Ldgs). The second phase,
which utilizes these initial findings, enables a structural rework
of 80 aircraft by center and rear fuselage replacement. This rework
program will provide time to assess the options for replacing Hawk
and, more importantly, permit fleet availability to be further
sustained until 2005 - the earliest practicable In-Service Date for
a replacement aircraft.
This complex and technically ambitious life extension program
has been crafted by a joint RAF/DERA/BAe team against a backdrop of
continually emerging structural problems with high life in-service
aircraft and the need to sustain the availability fleet. Routine
inspection of the full-scale fatigue test has revealed significant
damage to the fuselage and empennage. The article therefore
considers the lifting history of the aircraft and some of the
associated structural issues. It then describes the RAF's
strategy for life extension, before concluding with some of the
lessons learned