DoD: Firm supplied weak titanium for aircraft
By Sam LaGrone - Staff writer
Posted : Tuesday Dec 23, 2008 18:41:09 EST
As many as 7,900 titanium aircraft parts installed in military planes could be made of metal that’s too weak for the job, according to documents from a four-year Defense Department investigation.
Executives with Western Titanium, a metal supplier to Boeing, the Air Force and other government contractors, were indicted Dec. 4 for fraud over metal provided for Air Force F-22s, F-15s and C-17s, Navy F-18s, and NASA’s Kepler spacecraft.
“Several of these parts were placed on active-duty military aircraft” that were or are in active service, according to an affidavit in support of a search of Western’s business records.
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DoD: Firm supplied weak titanium for aircraft
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308Mike
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DoD: Firm supplied weak titanium for aircraft
Linkarooni
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A person properly schooled in right and wrong is safe with any weapon. A person with no idea of good and evil is unsafe with a knitting needle, or the cap from a ballpoint pen.
I remain pessimistic given the way BATF and the anti gun crowd have become tape worms in the guts of the Republic. - toad
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Catbird
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Re: DoD: Firm supplied weak titanium for aircraft
The good news, 7,900 is a surprisingly small number of parts, IMHO.
The bad news, titanium parts tend to be well integrated into the structure and difficult to replace without major disassembly of the airframe.
The most likely outcome is that they will stress test parts made with this process, replace those parts whose failure would be catastrophic, and require more frequent inspections on the rest.
The supplier probably had good intentions, provide seemingly adequate material at a much lower cost. In the aviation industry however, once you have an approved process, you can't change it without approval, even if doing so would make a higher quality product.
The bad news, titanium parts tend to be well integrated into the structure and difficult to replace without major disassembly of the airframe.
The most likely outcome is that they will stress test parts made with this process, replace those parts whose failure would be catastrophic, and require more frequent inspections on the rest.
The supplier probably had good intentions, provide seemingly adequate material at a much lower cost. In the aviation industry however, once you have an approved process, you can't change it without approval, even if doing so would make a higher quality product.
"If at first you don't succeed, that's one data point." XKCD