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The Federal Aviation Administration Airworthiness Assurance Nondestructive Inspection Validation Center (FAA-AANC) is currently conducting a detection reliability study pertaining to the detection of cracks in multi-layered aluminum sheets. This paper describes the design, production and characterization of test specimens that are currently being used to conduct third layer Probability of Detection (PoD) experiments. Pertinent aspects of the lap splice joints for Boeing 737 aircraft, Line Numbers 292 - 2565 are included in the test specimens. A preliminary analysis of the data indicates that for some inspectors, traditional measures of performance - in particular PoD curves based on maximum likelihood fit to two-parameter lognormal curve - may be misleading.

The task of visual inspection has important safety and cost implications, but studies of visual inspection reliability are still rare. If we are to understand and improve reliability, then techniques and insights are needed from different disciplines. Three disciplines are reviewed for their potential contributions: Non-Destructive (NDI) reliability studies, industrial inspection studies and CRM/MRM studies. Examples of how the use of multiple disciplines can help measurement and analysis are given, reaching the conclusion that more explicit integration among these disciplines is required.