IC Burden for Operators

14 CFR Part 26

Subpart C—Aging Airplane Safety—Widespread Fatigue Damage

§ 26.23   Extended limit of validity.

(a) Applicability. Any person may apply to extend a limit of validity of the engineering data that supports the structural maintenance program (hereafter referred to as LOV) approved under § 25.571 of this subchapter, § 26.21, or this section. Extending an LOV is a major design change. The applicant must comply with the relevant provisions of subparts D or E of part 21 of this subchapter and paragraph (b) of this section.

(b) Extended limit of validity. Each person applying for an extended LOV must comply with the following requirements:

(1) Establish an extended LOV that corresponds to the period of time, stated as a number of total accumulated flight cycles or flight hours or both, during which it is demonstrated that widespread fatigue damage will not occur in the airplane. This demonstration must include an evaluation of airplane structural configurations and be supported by test evidence and analysis at a minimum and, if available, service experience, or service experience and teardown inspection results, of high-time airplanes of similar structural design, accounting for differences in operating conditions and procedures. The airplane structural configurations to be evaluated include—

(i) All model variations and derivatives approved under the type certificate for which approval for an extension is sought; and

(ii) All structural modifications to and replacements for the airplane structural configurations specified in paragraph (b)(1)(i) of this section, mandated by airworthiness directive, up to the date of approval of the extended LOV.

(2) Establish a revision or supplement, as applicable, to the Airworthiness Limitations section (ALS) of the Instructions for Continued Airworthiness required by § 25.1529 of this subchapter, and submit it to the responsible Aircraft Certification Service office for approval. The revised ALS or supplement to the ALS must include the applicable extended LOV established under paragraph (b)(1) of this section.

(3) Develop the maintenance actions determined by the WFD evaluation performed in paragraph (b)(1) of this section to be necessary to preclude WFD from occurring before the airplane reaches the proposed extended LOV. These maintenance actions must be documented as airworthiness limitation items in the ALS and submitted to the responsible Aircraft Certification Service office for approval.

[Docket No. FAA-2006-24281, 75 FR 69782, Nov. 15, 2010, as amended by Doc. No. FAA-2018-0119, Amdt. 26-7, 83 FR 9169, Mar. 5, 2018]

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