Quality Assurance Practices for the AV-8B Harrier II Aircraft Wing Skins

摘要

We are providing this report for your review. We performed the audit in response to a referral from the Defense Criminal Investigative Service concerning allegations about improper quality assurance practices for the AV-8B Harrier II aircraft (AV-8B) wing skins. The complainant alleged that, during 1990, the following occurred: The McDonnell Aircraft Company (McAIR), now a part of McDonnell Douglas Aerospace East (McDonnell Douglas), produced a number of potentially nonconforming AV-8B upper and lower composite wing skins. The alleged nonconformance affected part of the wing skin area near the aircraft center line, which is a high-stress area. Nonconforming wing skins would have nearly zero strength due to folding of some of the inner plies of the composite material. Potentially weakened wing skins were installed on Marine Corps aircraft with the approval of the Navy. Some of the AV-8B wings produced by the contractor were sold to British Aerospace, Limited (British Aerospace), for use by the United Kingdom. British Aerospace refused to accept aircraft with the potentially weakened wings, and Navy officials then directed that the potentially weakened wings only be installed on aircraft destined for the Marine Corps.