R22 & R44 blade delamination

[topendtorque]

I think all this does is solidify the theme running over most of the helicopter-planet, and that is that Frank needs someone else (i.e. another more-qualified company) to make his blades. His folks certainly aren't getting it done.
Very sad

Yep.

Easy to note that there are as yet no comments form the antipodes. Mainly because every one is

A_B_S_O_L_U_T_E_L_Y S_T_U_N_N_E_D.

It matters not where it started to delaminate from. I have heard two opinions.

It was also purely co-incidental that sometime on the last flight that the blade gob smacked a bug or beetle of some sort, 3 and 11/16’” on your picture inboard from the tip of the blade proper.

You will notice that the witness mark is not only on the underside exterior bottom edge of the leading edge, but also on the spar material and the underside of the skin. In other words the skin at that time was flexing open just a tad enough to allow that juice to flow in between the skin and spar.

Is Frank the only person on this helicopter planet that believes that bonding stainless steel can be done to perfection without acidic or laser etching, or is this just a routine type (without putting too plain a point on it) of quality control gone missing?

The photograph portrays a very large percentage of material that was never bonded.

We also assume that the honeycomb was supposed to be all the way to the leading edge as well? Perhaps the missing bits allowed flexing of the skin which caused the glue to crack progressively.

There is no sign of prior damage to the leading edge, to initiate this damage.

I think what we see is what we have got, a failure. Why?

That blade may well have done way over its time.

No I do not believe that it has done anywhere near it’s time; it was only fitted in November ’05.

For those who comment that there is excessive paint abrasion, yes that certainly appears to be the case for six hundred hours. However, paint abrasion always occurs from the outside in, bonding failures occur from the inside out.

I and many others here would have experienced leading edge erosion to the point that the skin became so thin that it started to break up, but was still firmly bonded to the underlaying spar.
Still Stunned