Magazine Review: Aviation Maintenance

Dateline: 12/02/98

Last week, I received a copy of Aviation Maintenance magazine (the November 1998 issue, to be exact). Although the focus of the magazine is defintely not on composites, there were some items of interest.

One of the feature articles was about elecronic tap testing. It was written by Vicki McConnell, who is an editor editor for High-Performance Composites and Composites Technology, both published by Ray Publishing.

The article mainly discusses two instrumented hammers. One uses an accelerometer to measure pulse amplitudes. It costs around $650, but is not suitable for thin-skinned composites. The other generates its own taps and can be used on both thin-skinned structures and on solid laminates. Impulses are caught using an ultrasonic transducer. The cost is in the $1200 to $4000 range.

One device notably missing missing from the article is the Sonic BondMaster from Staveley. The BondMaster is more expensive (it starts at $10K+), but can be used on just about any type of laminate. Probes are available not only for disbonds, but also for delaminations, other types of flaws, and thickness gauging.

The magazine has five other feature articles, but no others cover composites. As with other trade magazines, this one has numerous short articles on news items and new products. Few if any are related to composites. WichiTech had a paragraph on its Hot Bond Composite Repair Systems, and Abaris dominated the calendar with its schedule of composite repair classes. Finally, Cordant Technologies announced a new metallic-glass alloy with very interesting properties. Although not a composite, I'm always interested in new materials.

Unless you're directly involved in aircraft maintenance, or you have an interest in highly technical aircraft industry news, you probably won't be interested in this magazine. But if you are interested, you can get a subscription form by sending a blank e-mail to AM.SUBS@Reply.Net.

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