"The sheer number of airframe repairs required after the hailstorm provided five years' worth of experience for the airframe mechanics," Regional Command South, the coalition headquarters based in Kandahar, said in a news release about the repairs.
All three of the airframe proposals shared a number of features.
Two of the Focke-Wulf Fw 190 fighters of JG 5 that flew against the RAF Beaufighters and Mustangs survive to this day — one, an F-model airframe with factory serial number, or Werknummer of 931 862, that crashed as a result of the "Black Friday" aerial engagements was found and recovered as a salvageable aircraft wreck in September 1983.
In the absence of an official two-seater variant, a number of airframes were crudely converted in the field.
The A330 was developed in parallel with the four-engine A340, which shared many common airframe components but differed in number of engines.
In 1969 there were worldwide about 10 cooperative ventures among manufacturers (both airframe and engine); by 1992 the number had risen close to 50.
That is bad — and to make matters worse, military airframe wear and tear is increasing for a number of other reasons.
The Spitfire's airframe was complex: the streamlined, semi-monocoque duralumin fuselage featured a large number of compound curves built up from a skeleton of 19 formers, also known as frames, starting from frame number one, immediately behind the propeller unit, to the tail unit attachment frame.
In the postwar era, the idea was revived by Supermarine and a number of two-seat Spitfires were built by converting old Mk IX airframes with a second "raised" cockpit featuring a bubble canopy.
The results for two failure locations on eight full-scale fatigue tests of near identical modern monolithic airframe sections, as well as over 150 low stress concentration fatigue coupons that were tested at a number of stress levels were considered.
