Cracks in the Hornets

[Al_Fallujah]

Navy has a problem here.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/military/2 ... titialskip

[Brando14100]

Well there's your problem.

8-)

[a1]

Looks like the hornets are going to be grounded for a while.

[Mushroom_Farmer]

The Navy says it will inspect fighter jets from Boeing after discovering "fatigue cracks" on more than a dozen aircraft deployed overseas.

Well I believe they already do that at regular inspections intervals, and "deployed overseas" covers a lot of territory.

The first crack was discovered during a routine flight inspection.

 Exactly! How else is it supposed to be found? Perhaps they should wait until parts start falling off?

The service issued an inspection alert late Thursday for all 636 Hornet aircraft to reduce any safety risk to pilots and the planes."

The article fails to specify which model/models of the F-18 is/are affected. After all, some of those aircraft are getting up in years.

 Fatigue cracks are a part of aviation. The USAF has people crawling all over it's aircraft looking for cracks. I knew a guy that checked C-130 wings for internal and external cracks. Big Whoop!

It looks like another anti-military attempt from the media.

Shares of the aerospace manufacturer fell $1.08 to $45.44 in afternoon trading.

 Uh, yeah. So did a lot of other stock. We're in a recession. D'OH!

 The best part of this article was in reading some of the comments.

[BigTruck]

This isn't news, this is everyday work for an airwinger in the military.

[Mushroom_Farmer]

 I wholly believe it was the author's intent to make this a political issue.  ;)

 

[BigTruck]

[quote]

[expat]

This isn't news, this is everyday work for an airwinger in the military.  These birds are flown like they are stolen, pulling G's and breaking the speed of sound.  Yah, the metal is going to crack eventually!!!!  That's why they inspect the bird routinely!!!  They always find things wrong with the planes, why did THIS make news?  

I could understand a commercial bird making the news because of cracked equipment, they can't eject and there are hundreds of people on that plane.  But this is everyday business for fighter crews.  Good on the Navy for finding the issue, a big ol FAIL for the press wasting their time trying to make a mountain out of an anthill and trying to cause a stir, and good on Al Fallujah for sharing this because it made me laugh out loud at the media    

The comments on the article pissed me off though.  They turned this whole thing into a political issue, and because of forum rules that's all I can say here (thank goodness)

Yup, another day at work for the spanner monkeys and a big no story for the rest

Matt

[DaveSims]

I'm sure this happens to a lot of Navy planes, after being subjected to catapult takeoffs and carrier landings on a regular basis.

[Felix/FFDS]

The surprising thing is that it doesn't happen do civilian planes more often!  After all, I wouldn't at all be surprised if a brand new plane carrying ME (and my extra poundage) about, suddenly decided to have cracks that miraculously appeared just as I was boarding!

[expat]

[quote]The surprising thing is that it doesn't happen do civilian planes more often!

[Mushroom_Farmer]

 It happens in cargo planes too, maybe even more so considering their service life. But I guess big, slow aircraft just aren't glamorous enough to write about in the hopes of getting Joe Idiot stirred up.