An Airline Appraisal of Tubing System Problems

Maintaining the integrity of a hydraulic fluid distribution system in the commercial jet transport airplanes during routine operational service offers a major challenge to the airlines. The new 747, DC-10 and L1011 wide-body jet aircraft designs include significant trends that are intended to improve the operational performance and reliability of these systems. Achievement of these objectives will depend to a great extent on the adequacy of consideration given to the subsequent maintainence and repair procedures as a part of the original design and the installation practices. Factors such as environmental conditions, accessibility, personnel familiarization, tooling and parts availability and their quality assurance associated costs and evolutionary design changes are recommended for thorough consideration by the designer to achieve an optimum degree of maintainability in the aircraft fluid distribution system.