The Gun Counter

Posted: **Wed Dec 24, 2008 8:00 pm**

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.

More of this story..............

Posted: **Wed Dec 24, 2008 8:32 pm**

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 Gun Counter

DoD: Firm supplied weak titanium for aircraft

DoD: Firm supplied weak titanium for aircraft

Re: DoD: Firm supplied weak titanium for aircraft