ความคิดเห็นที่ 10
DATE:20/02/08
SOURCE:Flightglobal.com
US Air Force clears remaining Boeing F-15s to fly
By Graham Warwick
All remaining US Air Force Boeing F-15A-D Eagles have been returned to flight, contingent on completion of individual inspections on each aircraft's fuselage longerons.
The USAF does not expect any of the 149 aircraft to require repair and says there will be no operating restrictions on Eagles that pass these final inspections. But all F-15A-Ds will require repetitive checks for longeron cracks every 400 flying hours.
After a lengthy series of grounding and inspections following the 2 November 2007 crash of a Missouri Air National Guard F-15C, caused by structural failure, longeron cracks have been found in only nine of the US Air Force's 438 A- to D-model Eagles.
The fatigue cracks were found where machining during manufacture had reduced the thickness of the upper fuselage longerons below blueprint specification or where there was surface roughness that could cause stress concentration.
On 8 January, the USAF returned 259 of the F-15s to flight after they passed inspections for manufacturing deficiencies. The remainder remained grounded because at least one longeron on each aircraft did not meet blueprint specification at one or more points.
The F-15s that remained grounded are undergoing tailored inspections unique to each tail number. The USAF has recommended that aircraft with longerons that do not meet specification, but pass these inspections, be returned to flight, effectively ending the groundings.
Air Combat Command says it has not been decided whether the nine aircraft with longeron cracks will be repaired, although the Warner Robins Air Logistics Center responsible for F-15 depot overhaul is manufacturing a batch of replacement longerons.
http://www.flightglobal.com/articles/2008/02/20/221702/us-air-force-clears-remaining-boeing-f-15s-to-fly.html
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Airman Dies in Collision During Training
By MELISSA NELSON, AP
3 hours ago
EGLIN AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. An Air Force fighter pilot died Wednesday after his jet and another likely collided during a training exercise and crashed into the Gulf of Mexico. The other pilot was rescued and is expected to survive.
The single-seat F-15C Eagles crashed Wednesday off the Florida Panhandle, said Col. Todd Harmer, commander of the 33rd Fighter Wing, 58th Fighter Squadron. The pilots had ejected and were later rescued.
The base has suffered a "great loss," Harmer said in an e-mailed statement. He said, "We will continue to do everything we can to assist our families and airmen at this tragic time."
The cause of the collision about 35 miles south of Tyndall Air Force Base was not immediately known, but the Air Force will investigate, Harmer said. Weather in the area was clear.
The exercise emphasized "basic maneuvers and tactics," Harmer said.
A Coast Guard rescue jet located one pilot and radioed the location to a fishing vessel, which picked him up, said Coast Guard Petty Officer James Harless. A Coast Guard helicopter then hoisted the pilot off the vessel.
That pilot told rescuers he saw the other pilot also eject but lost him in the clouds, Harless said. He told them the approximate location for the second pilot, who was found by a Coast Guard helicopter, Harless said.
Both pilots had been with the wing "for quite some time," Harmer said.
No debris from the jets has been found, Harless said.
The Air Force grounded all of its F-15s nearly 700 after the catastrophic failure of an F-15C during a routine training flight in Missouri in November. The pilot safely ejected.
Most were back in service by January, but others were grounded indefinitely after defects were found.
The Air Force began using the F-15C in 1979. The planes, built by McDonnell Douglas Corp., were deployed to the Persian Gulf in 1991 in support of Operation Desert Storm and have since been used in Iraq, Turkey and Bosnia.
The planes can fly as high as 65,000 feet, and each costs about $30 million, according to the Air Force.
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
http://www6.comcast.net/news/articles/national/2008/02/20/Missing.Planes/
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