A visit to the Pima Air & Space Museum made me rethink old composite repair methods

I was at the Pima Air & Space Museum in Tucson last week, just looking at the old birds. I stopped by a Vietnam-era Phantom they had sitting outside. The sun was hitting the radome just right, and I could see all these weird, wavy patches in the composite material. Up close, you could tell they were field repairs, probably done in a hurry decades ago with whatever resin they had on hand. I always thought those old 'get it flying' fixes were kind of hacky, but seeing them still holding after fifty years of sitting in the Arizona sun... it made me stop. The guy next to me, another mechanic, said, 'They knew how to make stuff stick back then, even if it wasn't pretty.' It wasn't about the fancy tech, it was about knowing the material. Makes me wonder if we overthink some of our minor patch jobs now with all the new epoxy systems. Has anyone else seen an old repair that just wouldn't quit?

2 comments

2 Comments

kelly.parker3h ago

Read an article about a B-52 that came back from a deployment with a sheet metal patch riveted over a hole in the wing. It was supposed to be temporary, but they flew it like that for another twenty years before someone finally did a proper repair. Sometimes the quick fix is the right fix.

sarah2681h ago

Totally get that, @kelly.parker. My old car had a check engine light on for like five years... the mechanic said it was a sensor thing that didn't matter. Just kept driving it and it was fine. Those temporary fixes really do stick around.