Aircraft structures (both subsonic and supersonic) experience variations in stress and temperature during flight; however, the airframe temperature variations are much more significant in supersonic aircrafts (e.g. in Concorde) than for subsonic aircraft due to the effect of aerodynamic heating at supersonic speeds.

This conference paper presents effects of temperature and time on the structure (skin) of the aircraft during flight. The heat-treatable 2024-T3 aluminum alloy, reported in this investigation, was acquired from a local aerospace industry (RMAF). Annealing heat-treatments experiments in the temperature range of  200-250 ^oC for durations in the range of 20 min – 22h for the 2024-T3 aluminum alloy, have been conducted. Metallographic investigations involved use of both optical and electron microscopes (SEM). The material processing resulted in grain growth in the microstructure of the alloy. The grain size data have been plotted versus time at various temperatures; and the graphical plots have been analyzed to establish the kinetics of grain growth in the aerospace aluminum alloy.