A Year or so ago, Air Force leaders were struggling to determine how to deal with problems caused by aging aircraft. The fleet was, on average, older than at any time in history. Gen. John P. Jumper, Chief of Staff, said the Air Force faced "issues that we have never had to deal with before." Among them, he said, were corrosion, skin weakness, frayed electrical wiring, and unanticipated component failures. With KC-135 tankers in depot, he noted, "you can peel the skin layers apart, and powder comes out the middle." F-15 fighters were operating under flight restrictions imposed after failures in which tails actually snapped off the aircraft. In the case of the A-10, the Air Force was finding more structural defects than anyone expected. Time spent repairing the attack aircraft ballooned. The need for modernization was so urgent, said Jumper Iast Februties." He added," All of this comes together to make us question how we judge the airworthiness of our air-craft."
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