Federal Aviation Administration May 4, 2009 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

This action proposes special conditions for the Alenia Model C-27J airplane. This airplane has novel or unusual design features when compared to the state of technology described in the airworthiness standards for transport-category airplanes. These design features include electronic flight-control systems. These special conditions pertain to the effects of novel or unusual design features such as effects on the structural performance of the airplane. We have issued additional special conditions for other novel or unusual design features of the C-27J.

We propose to supersede Airworthiness Directive (AD) 2006-07- 15, which applies to Thrush Aircraft, Inc. Model 600 S2D and S2R (S-2R) series airplanes (type certificate previously held by Quality Aerospace, Inc. and Ayres Corporation). AD 2006-07-15 currently requires repetitive inspections of the \1/4\-inch and \5/16\-inch bolt hole areas on the wing front lower spar caps for fatigue cracking; replacement or repair any wing front lower spar cap where fatigue cracks are found; and reporting of any fatigue cracks found to the FAA. AD 2006-07-15 also puts the affected airplanes into groups for compliance time and applicability purposes. Since we issued AD 2006-07- 15, FAA analysis reveals that inspections are not detecting all existing cracks and shows the incidences of undetected cracks will increase as the airplanes age. Consequently, this proposed AD would retain the actions of AD 2006-07-15 and impose a life limit on the wing front lower spar caps that requires replacement of the wing front lower spar caps when the life limit is reached. This proposed AD would also change the requirements and applicability of the groups discussed above and remove the ultrasonic inspection method. We are proposing this AD to prevent wing front lower spar cap failure caused by undetected fatigue cracks. Such failure could result in loss of a wing in flight.