Composite Aircraft in the long term...

Paul Tomblin wrote:

In a previous article, "Dennis O'Connor" said:
The real issue Jay, is whether the FAA's airframe life limitations have any
basis in reality... Assuming that the FAA persists in insisting that the
Cirrus airframes time out at 5K, very shortly you will see bunches of them
only accumulating 5 or 10 hours a year on the tach - by various means...

I think what's really going to happen is that when the first couple of
Cirrusssessess(sorry) reach 5000 hours, Cirrus is going to buy them back,
and cut them to pieces and test them to prove to the FAA that they're
still as strong as the day they were built, and the FAA is going to
increase the life limit to 10,000 hours and we're repeat the process a few
years later. That's assuming that Cirrus is still in business when it
happens. If not, hopefully there will be a Cirrus owners association that
can perform the work.

Probably all true. With a 300K dollar price tag and loads of avionics, which
would appear to be major theft targets and probably more heat sensitive than
the basic airframe, the new "fast glass" aircraft will probably be kept in
hangars when not in use; except for the occasional overnight stop. Therefore,
most of the the SR22's and similar aircraft should be in pretty good shape at
the end of 15 years and/or 5000 or 10,000 hours.

The new group of composite trainers, which tend to stay out on the ramp when
not in use may prove more about the true service life of composite structures.

Peter