The Center for Aircraft Structural Life Extension (CAStLE) is located in the Department of Mechanical Engineering (DFME) at The United States Air Force Academy (USAFA). The Academy is the Air Force training ground for many of its future leaders. More specifically, the USAFA mission is to educate, train, and inspire men and women to become leaders of character, motivated to lead the Department of the Air Force in service to our nation. The CAStLE has a two-fold mission that supports aging structures and material degradation. First, is to perform a wide range of research and technology development projects focused on delivering critical science and technology products required to understand material degradation in structures and systems to various Government, academic and commercial sponsors. Second, but no less important, is to educate, train, inspire and otherwise prepare future generations that might become the core of the science and technology community within the Government and the general professional population. Successful execution of the CAStLE mission provides analysis, tools, solutions, information and expertise to the safe and economical sustainment of systems and structures--primarily those of the Department of Defense (DoD). The CAStLE mission also supports the USAFA mission by bringing Air Force-relevant research and engineering activities into the classroom, thus better preparing cadets to be Air Force engineers and officers upon graduation.
