Aerospace Structures Supportability

This paper is about supportability in its general sense with emphasis on aerospace structures. Reliability and maintainability (R and M) are described and defined from the standpoint of both structural design and structural analysis. The classical “ilities”: accessability, inspectability, and replaceability are described as design attributes. Reliability and probability of failure are shown to be in the domain of the analysis. Availability and replaceability are traditional logistic responsibilities which are influenced by supportability engineers. The U.S. Air Force R and M 2000 process is described, and the R and M 1988 Workshop at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base is also included in the description. New solicitations include military specifications and military standards which have significance at least equal to performance, costs, and schedules. Several examples are presented. An overall airframe design flow chart is presented in computer-aided design module context with an overlay showing how supportability modules may be integrated with traditional procedures. Structural design and analysis methods being developed for military aircraft are directly applicable to commercial airplanes and manned space vehicles.