Originally Posted by NickLappos
Widg, I don't know what that means, since the S61 and the S76 and the S92 were all designed to have no life limit on the fuselage. This is perfomed by designing the fuselage so that the stresses are low enough to assure no fatigue failures, and then the monitoring and updating in areas where field experience proves this not to be true. I believe at least one S76 has also reached 40,000 hours.
Nick, this is something i am keen to understand in more detail. I am about to embark on another large project and want to make the absolute most out of FEA and strain guaging. I have read several articles on fatigue life estimation through flight testing. I imagine aluminum would prove harder to get right, since there is no fatigue limit stress like steel.
Could you point me in a direction to learn more about heli industry practices?
Mart