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This paper compares the environmental durability of currently used as well as some of the potential aircraft aluminum alloy skin materials. A simple test was developed to evaluate the environmental durability by simultaneous application of fatigue loads and aerated salt water attack. Alclad alloys showed excellent resistance to corrosion fatigue. On the other hand, 7475 alloy and new potential material 6013 alloy experienced inter-granular corrosion at the fatigue crack origin area. The test results also indicated the significance of corrosion preventive coatings to increase the age of aircraft.

A non-destructive x-ray technique, the double crystal diffractometer method, is presented as a tool to investigate the aging and deformation behavior of the Al-Li alloy. This is a sensitive method for measuring the strain and dislocation density within individual grains through the x-ray rocking curve. In addition, models were developed to describe the aging and deformation characteristics of this alloy.