... first came dramatically to light with the world's first jet airliner the De Haviland Comet. The early Comets had square windows which generated stress points and ultimate fuselage failure. It was a tragic way to learn about potential failure as several aircraft were lost before the cause was discovered.

In 1989 I flew in a 707 from Dakar (Bangla Desh) to Kathmandu and back. I wasn't entirely comfortable flying between the Himalayan peaks in such an old aeroplane. I just hoped the pilot/navigator was flying up the right valley as I'm sure the fuselage's integrity might well have been compromised had we climbed high enough to clear the mountains :) Still we and our bikes survived and we lived to enjoy the tour.

Perhaps the most famous book about metal fatigue is Neville Shute's 'No Highway' which was filmed with (IIRC) Michael Redgrave as the engineer/designer who realises the problem. In real life Neville Shute was an aeronautical engineer who was involved with both airships (with Barnes-Wallis) and aeroplanes (with Airspeed) in the UK, so he knew what he was writing about.

Geoff

Happened after a 747 had structural failure in mid flight due to a poorly performed repair. Japan Air Flight 123 crashed into a mountain in 1985 killing over 500 people, with just four people surviving. The real pressurized bulkhead in the plane failing, and this resulting in a loss of hydraulics. The pilots fought bravely for almost an hour to keep the plane airborne, but ultimately lost the battle.

The American Airlines Flight 191 crash in Chicago which killed 273 people, was the result of metal fatigue after a engine on a DC 10 was removed in a improper fashion in order to undergo maintenance work. In Flight 191's case, an engine separated from the plane on take off, the pilots were unable to recover control of the aircraft.

I may be one of few TG fiction authors to portray a plane crash in one of their stories. My MAU- Collisions story re-told the crash of Korean Air 801 on Guam in 1997. 801 was a classic example of CFIT or Controlled flight into terrain.

I read something a year or two ago about a group restoring one. As I recall, TWA was a big operator of the Connie, and it was a TWA employee group helping do the restoration. Yes, they were a beautiful airplane.

KJT

"Being a girl is wonderful and to torture someone into that would be like the exact opposite of what it's like. I don’t know how anyone could act that way." College Girl - poetheather

The US Air Force plans, or at least, planned, to keep the B52, a plane that first flew Tuesday, April 15, 1952, less than 50 years after the Wright Brothers first flight, in service till around 2025, 73 years after that date. Those would be refurbished B52H models, the only version still flying. Get this, The last production aircraft, B-52H number 61-0040, left the factory on 26 October 1962 so let's see, 2025-1963 = 62 years! And that will be the YOUNGEST of them.

The P3s that I flew in the US Navy, first flew as the Lockheed L188 Electra passenger plane. First flight, Dec 6, 1957.
As the Navy P3A, it first flew November 1959, and went into service in August 1962, and the last production plane a P3C, came off the line in April 1990. At that tie the navy intended to keep it in service until about 2040, but plans have changed, and it will be replaced by the Boeing P8, ( a modified 737 ) which will begin to replace the P3 in 2013 but will not complete the replacement until around 2020. All versions beyond P3C appear to have been modifications of the P3C, or a designation for a version built for sale to other countries, or specially built variants. Or at least, all aircraft currently in service in the USN are P3Cs.
In Dec 2007, the average age of P-3C aircraft was 28 years, the oldest aircraft was 44 years old, and the youngest was 17 years old. So maybe, some will be in use as long as 57 years, but the youngest will have been around for at least 30 years.
( and that doesn't count some that are in use in other countries, or in non- USN usage, such as hurricane hunters, aerial tankers, etc.)

So at least inn the military, it sounds as if metal fatigue, while a problem ( 39 P3Cs were grounded last year, for refurbishment for that reason ) is not a death blow very early. "We are acting early, based upon engineering analysis and fleet inspections, to ground these aircraft before a problem arises."

As for the woman using one for a house, I guess the biggest problem would be getting it to her site. It is too big to move on the highway, though it could, with a lot of permits, cross a highway. It would surely be too expensive to cut one up small enough to move it on a highway,m and then reassemble it

Most of a 747 is on display at a museum near San Francisco, at an airfield far too small to land one, but it is nest to San Francisco bay, where it could be moved a few miles by barge to the edge of the airfield, from San Francisco International.

Holly