Patent ID: 7617730

Claim:
A method of inspecting an aircraft structure, the method comprising: disposing a two-dimensional array of ultrasonic pulse-echo sensors onto a surface of an aircraft structure; sending from each particular sensor an ultrasonic pulse into the surface; receiving by each particular sensor an ultrasonic echo signal resulting from the sending of the ultrasonic pulse by the particular sensor; graphically displaying an image of damage within the aircraft structure, wherein graphically displaying an image of the damage comprises displaying a C-scan image defined by a two-dimensional matrix of pixels each of which uniquely corresponds to a particular one of the sensors in a one-to-one correspondence, determining a position of a cursor in correspondence to a respective pixel of the C-scan image, and graphically displaying first and second B-scan images comprising cross-sectional depth images derived from data collected by respective pluralities of sensors that are at least partially defined by the position of the cursor and that are arranged in two different directions; determining whether the damage satisfies a predetermined criterion; and selecting a mode of returning the aircraft structure to flying service based on the determination of whether the damage satisfies a predetermined criterion.