[quote=highsea;474550]Ahem, It was McDonnell, not Boeing.
You are quite right, dear heart, but Boeing took them over and they are now known as Boeing F-15s. ( I still can't bring myself to say Boeing C-47s though!
)
I highly doubt this is a case of intentional use of bad parts.
Agreed.
All structural components get inspected when they are built, several times by several different people. If a part is outside of design tolerance, it gets MRB tagged and submitted to the engineers for evaluation. The claim is that the part was thin, but how thin? .001"?
Dunno!
It's possible that there was a run of parts that might have been at minimum material condition and were approved by engineering. Cracks on high-time frames are not uncommon, especially considering the service conditions these things get.
Again agreed. Cracks occur on airframes especially those tormented by high g usage.
It's always a tradeoff between weight and performance.
It was ever thus!