John Halpenny wrote:

David Findlay wrote:

david something that bears consideration is that over the full life of
an aircraft every component will come to need repair as it wears out.
so every component needs to be got at, removed, replaced or repaired
and put back into service. rivets may be tedious but allow this to
occur. welded components may lead to an entire airframe sitting on the
tarmac or in a hangar while repairs to cracks are thought through and
attempted.

I suppose part of that is to do with how long we operate aircraft. If
aircraft cost similiar to new cars and were similiar costs to maintain it
wouldn't matter if we threw out an airframe every 15-20 years, but at the
current costs it's rather impractical. Thanks,

David


A century ago, people traveled by ship or train, both of which were held
together with rivets. Sometimes in the 1940's they both switched to
welding, and soon after the passengers switched to planes and busses,
both of which still use rivets. Coincidence?

Uh, yes. :-)


Matt