F-15C leaves Robins for fatigue test Published March 26, 2010 By Wayne Crenshaw 78 ABW/PA ROBINS AIR FORCE BASE, Ga. -- An F-15C left Robins March 15 on the back of a flatbed truck headed for a Boeing facility in St. Louis, Mo. It will never fly again, but it has an important mission to fill. The aircraft will be used in a fatigue test aimed at determining the maintenance activities required to achieve the F-15C fleet's projected service date of 2025. Randy Jansen, the F-15 chief engineer at Robins, called the test "a massive undertaking" and said it is expected to take five years. Boeing is still designing some of the elements of the assessment, he said. The aircraft underwent partial programmed depot maintenance at Robins so it would structurally be the same as any F-15C which is still flying. The PDM elements left out were those not related to the structure, such as avionics, said Jansen. The last F-15C fatigue test in 1991 validated the plane for 9,000 hours of flight, and that data is currently being used to determine when certain parts must be inspected or serviced. Now that some F-15Cs are approaching those hours, the new test will determine future maintenance needs. The test will apply the same stress on the structure in a couple of years it would ordinarily experience in many years of flying. The F-15E, which has a projected service date of 2035, will also require a fatigue test, said Jansen. The plan is to begin testing the F-15E immediately following completion of the F-15C test, he said.