Reevaluation of OH-58D Dynamic Component Lives When Incorporating a Revised Usage Spectrum

The OH-58D was initially developed as an observation aircraft by Bell Helicopter in 1981. Today it plays a major role in combat situations in Iraq and Afghanistan as the OH-58D Kiowa Warrior armed scout helicopter. The usage of the aircraft has changed in response to the mission needs. This change in mission requirements has necessitated an update to the aircraft usage spectrum. The changes included the creation of the combat maneuvering flight training package and the use of new flight configurations (cabin doors removed) to support ongoing activities in those fields. This resulted in a new OH-58D Dynamic Load Survey in 2008 to obtain flight test data in support of this reevaluation. This paper discusses the development of the revised usage spectrum, and the development of the flight test plan and test procedures, as well as analytical fatigue methodology used to reevaluate the dynamic component lives.