Abstract:
This thesis describes the investigations that
have been carried out to examine the feedback of safety and
reliability information from civil transport aircraft in
the United Kingdom .
Many organisations were visited during the course
of the study , including several civil transport aircraft
operators, airframe and component manufacturer?, and airworthiness
authorities . These visits showed the way in
which individuals and companies contribute to the
information system.
The quality of the feedback produced by the
information system was assessed by means of a selective
survey of development, reliability, and design engineers,
etc . who had previously been interviewed during visits to
industry . The response of the information system was also
gauged by determining the average times required for
rectification action to be taken. Parallel studies were
conducted, in a limited fashion , to see how the safety and
reliability information system of the United States of
America ' s civil air transport industry and that of the
Royal Air Force, and its suppliers, compared with the
British civil air transport industry ' s system .
A series of case studies was also performed to
investigate , in some detail , what happened to faulty
components that were removed from aircraft . The transmission
of information from these components to everyone
else in the information system , and the rectification
action taken , were examined . These studies confirmed that
the procedures determined in the previous investigations
were, in general , carried out and also highlighted some
problems.
All of the above investigations showed that the reliability
information system was not always adequate, and that
a considerable amount of work may have had to be done m
achieve adequate reliability control . There were some
areas where there was insufficient information for
reliability control, and improvements were necessary.
The most important recommendation was that a more
detailed investigation should be carried out into the
feasability of a National Aerospace Reliability Data Bank .
A further suggestion was that the Maintenance Review Board
consultation system, and its associated reliability and
maintainability analyses, should be encouraged .
Some work was done to produce design aids such
as reliability prediction formulae , etc . These should go
some way towards overcoming the problem of design experience
retention.
