Patent ID: 8623160

Claim:
A method of repairing an aircraft structural component, which has a component fault in a portion adjoining a cavity of the aircraft structural component, wherein the method comprises the following steps: removing a region of the aircraft structural component that has the component fault, introducing an expansion body comprising a balloon made of a heat-resistant expandable plastics material into the cavity of the aircraft structural component through an opening that has been formed in the aircraft structural component by the removal of the region of the aircraft structural component that has the component fault, wherein the expansion body while being introduced into the cavity of the aircraft structural component is in a non-expanded state, converting the expansion body that has been introduced into the cavity of the aircraft structural component to an expanded state such that the expansion body in its expanded state fills the cavity to an extent that it exerts a first pressure on an inner surface of the aircraft structural component that faces the cavity and completely overlaps the opening, and closing the opening by means of a repair material, wherein during closing of the opening by means of the repair material the expansion body in its expanded state exerts the first pressure on the inner surface of the repair material that faces the cavity of the aircraft structural component, and the expansion body is converted to its expanded state by introducing a self-hardening foam material into the expansion body.