America’s Military Can’t Repair Its Own $1.7 Trillion Jet | Only about half of the U.S.’s fleet of F-35 fighter jets is operational at any time due to difficulties with repairs, which must go throu…::Only about half of the U.S.’s fleet of F-35 fighter jets is operational at any time due to difficulties with repairs, which must go through contractors.
That sounds bad, but it’s also completely out of context. Commercial jets probably stay grounded less than a day, but I have no frame of reference for fighter aircraft.
I watched a video about maintenence for commercial passenger jets recently. Light engine maintenence takes on the order of a week, heavy maintenence takes several months. For heavy maintenence, they literally disassemble every component of the engine, so even if everything goes perfectly, it still takes forever.
That said, I imagine they just swap a new engine into the plane while the old one is under maintenence.
Do you have a link to said video? Not because I disagree but because that sounds super interesting to watch.