The dissemination of information relating to the reliability of aircraft and their equipment

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.