"Roy" wrote in message
...
When getting antsy about composite life it's worth remembering helicopter
rotors are similar in construction to our ships and have service life on
the
main rotor of 15 years +
(I suspect life of the aircraft but 1 I know in particular had 15+ years
and
000's of hours on)
this is in a particularly harsh environment,
Failures, I suspect have more to do with poor initial construction and or
abuse rather than "lifeing" the items.

my $0.02

(and belive me, I do have the flameshields UP)


Reminds me of the rotor blades I saw that had been wrapped around a tree in
about 1970. Steel strap inside balsa laminates with fiberglass cover and
shielded leading edge. Pretty amazing.

I have no doubts about the integrity of properly constructed composite
structures. There have been some suggestions that at least one company may
have been a bit heavy handed with the squeegees a few years ago on one
model, as the airfoil was losing shape after three years. Current pre-pregs
have improved lay-up quality in many areas, but sloppy joinery, well.......

Frank Whiteley