"Costly Flaws Found In Navy's Top Jet: Wing mechanism wear could halve flight hours"

http://defensenews.com/story.php?F=2768119&C=airwar

Navy, Boeing Downplay Alleged Super Hornet Problems

(DEFENSE NEWS 17 MAY 07) ... Christopher P. Cavas
U.S. Navy and Boeing officials were quick to respond to a Boston Globe
story May 17 that alleged "costly flaws" in Super Hornet strike
fighters could cut their lifetime flight hours in half.

"The Boston Globe article has many misstatements," said Patricia
Frost, a spokeswoman for Boeing Naval Systems in St. Louis. "Boeing
and the U.S. Navy expect the Super Hornet and the EA-18G to meet or
exceed their 6,000-hour design life."

The Globe story reported that "a mechanism inside the wings of the F/
A-18 [E and F] Super Hornet ... is wearing out prematurely" - a problem
that, if uncorrected, "would drastically shorten the $50 million
aircraft's life span from 6,000 hours to 3,000 hours."

Boeing and the Navy acknowledged that problems have been found with
the aircraft, but said the situation described in the Globe story
dates from four years ago. Fixes already have been incorporated into
new aircraft and will be retrofitted into older planes, Boeing and the
Navy said.

"The U.S. Navy has identified a pylon fitting in the wing of the F/
A-18 E and F model Super Hornet where fatigue could potentially
shorten the wing's expected service life and is implementing a
corrective measure," said Chuck Wagner, a spokesman with Naval Air
Systems Command in Patuxent River, Md. "The fitting is part of the
lower wing spar and is used to reinforce the area where stores attach
to the wing. The potential problem was identified through an
engineering analysis in 2003 and subsequent testing in 2005, which are
part of our routine risk-mitigation processes for the aircraft's
development. The Navy and Boeing worked together, a fully-funded
project is underway, and today every aircraft coming off the
production line is being delivered with the solution that corrects for
the potential future fatigue. A retrofit solution on those aircraft
already in the fleet is planned for 2009 and will correct the
identified wing area prior to those aircraft reaching the flight-hour
threshold in which fatigue could potentially be experienced. The Navy
is confident it has selected the optimal proactive response which in
no way compromises the readiness or performance of the aircraft's
mission."

Asked whether the situation affected new EA-18G Growler electronic
countermeasures aircraft - which are all converted on the production
line from two-seat F models - Wagner said the problem did "not
influence them at all, because the solution is already incorporated
into aircraft coming off the production line. The solutions were
incorporated before the first G was delivered."

Fixes and modifications to aircraft in series production are not
unusual, Frost said.
"They're part of the normal life of an aircraft," she said. "If
something comes up you go out and fix it in a timely fashion before it
becomes a serious issue."