Its a real shame that the J didnt have active stress monitoring across all frames. We were hammering jets into strips very rarely in the Stan, despite landing on natural surfaces 4-5 times a day.
Crews very quickly seemed to realise that hammering the jet iaw the manual onto a rollered strip like bastion wasnt very sensible. People very quickly were using pretty standard landing techniques on a strip that was pretty flat and I daresay consumed far less fatigue index than the sortie profile gobbled up on the database.
I dont doubt the Block 16 CDS and 2 hours at low level on tac sorties hasnt helped, but I would be really interested to see the results of a NDT test programme on the outer wing boxes - I wonder if for once there would be a pleasant surprise.
Or, am I completely wrong and are the wings showing physical signs of cracking? I heard there were problems with flap hinges, but this is a completely seperate issue from the wing spar fatigue issues and down to our modus operandi.
Out of interest, is the 400 spar metal or composite?