Creative solutions for complex developmental testing

Sandia National Laboratories was requested to establish the FAA Aging Aircraft Nondestructive Inspection (NDI) Development and Demonstration Center. The Center is housed in a hangar at the Albuquerque International Airport and owns its own aged transport airplane. The Center`s work encompasses research and development in enhanced structural inspection. The goals of the Center are to: promote NDI technology development and maturation; help transfer new nondevelopment item technology to the hangar floor; validate NDI techniques; assess reliability or probability of detection of NDI processes. An important part of this project will be to make sure that the cost of implementation and operation of any technique is seriously considered and that techniques are usable in the field. Among the initial techniques to be evaluated are: enhanced visual, magneto-optic eddy current; coherent optics; ultrasonics; thermographics; eddy current scanners; experimental modal analysis. This project is a perfect example of how Development Testing draws on its own resources and teams up with others, as necessary, to get the job done. In this case, New Mexico State University and a private company, Science Applications International Corporation, are assisting