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Polish Armed Forces are currently operating hundred helicopters belonging to Mi family. Metal fuselage is usually resistant to the battle and the human factor. Unfortunately, metal rotor blades of Mi helicopters are sensitive to operating conditions. Single blade is made from monolithic aluminum spar and mutually separated trailing sections, which are bonded to the spar. The sections are constructed of metal sandwich panels. During aggressive military operating conditions blades sections are often damaged by debonding from the spar, fatigue cracks of section skin, dents and perforations as well as erosion. The manufacturer assumed that structurally damaged sections should be exchanged. Provided repair technologies are applied only to cosmetic damages. Unfortunately, there is a limit to number repairs which prevents replacement of two neighboring sections due to the high temperature of curing cycle during the section replacement.

The work concerns the selection of measurement parameters for selected non-destructive testing methods of Mi helicopter rotor blades after repair. Considered repair cases involve metal cracks in the sandwich skin and repair damage of honeycomb structure (puncture, dent). In the event of a crack, repair is performed by applying a composite-metal repair package. In case of damage of the core, its broken piece is replaced by a new one and then applied the same metal-composite package as in the case of crack repair. The present work focuses on detecting disbond between skin and core below repair patch and cracks under the repair package. Detecting cracks and assessing their length is important because the repair technology provides the repair package without removing of cracked part of skin. Authors have used laser shearography and C-scan methods for MIA and ET.