US News
More than 170 F-15s to remain grounded, US Air Force says
Jan 10, 2008, 18:26 GMT
Washington - The US Air Force will keep more than 170 F-15s grounded after finding structural defects that will force either major repairs or the retirement of the warplanes.
About 60 per cent of the 442 F-15 Eagles have been cleared to return to flight, Air Force Major Dave Small told Deutsche Presse- Agentur dpa.
The entire fleet of the F-15 A-to-D versions was grounded for inspections following a November accident in which one of the planes came apart in flight.
The inspections concluded that the airplanes suffered from a manufacturing defect in the 'spine' of the ageing fighter jets.
The defects took place in production of the planes from the late 1970s to 1985, Small said.
The F-15 Eagles were build by McDonnell Douglas, which was acquired by Boeing in 1996 in one of the many post Cold-War defence industry mergers.
The F-15E Strike Eagles were not affected by the accident and the fleet of 217 remains active.
© 2008 dpa - Deutsche Presse-AgenturCOMMENT
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Older Talkback
page: 1
We spent about x billion dollars developing a replacement called the F-22 paid for all the development (paid for!) went into production(paid for) and now, all we need to do is replace them. After all, they're only 35 years old!
Jesus cheeerist!
We all know about government waste (in the billions)! Hey, bet we are saving on fuel costs with the grounding. Then again, when are our jets (passenger as well) going to fly on safer, more independent alternative energy source/sources? Where the heck is innovation when we need it?
The fat cats are getting fatter.
In the spirit,
Noharmness
It's an age problem. To my knowledge, there has never been a structural defect requiring remedial design and repair with this plane within it's original estimated life. It's record is stellar and the value is excellent.
It's old, we have a new one available, coming off the assembly line and they need to step up and just pay the money for it. At a 1 to 2 ratio we would get 6(?) times the effectiveness with half the aircraft. You just cannot beat that deal.
page: 1
NoharnessJan 10th, 2008 - 22:16:59
I wonder if the author of this article is a news reporter or ambulance-chasing lawyer. Right now, all anyone can know is that the beams failed. These aircraft started flying back in 1972. They are thirty-five years old. There is this thing called metal fatigue and there may have been nothing at all wrong with those members at the time they were constructed. There is thing called metal fatigue. The older a machine is, the more likely it is to have a failure of this kind. Do let's try to get our language right.
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