International Committee on Aeronautical Fatigue and Structural Integrity

The first conference of the International Committee on Aeronautical Fatigue (ICAF) was held in Amsterdam in 1952, with participants from the Netherlands, United Kingdom, Sweden, Belgium and Switzerland.

ICAF soon got a significant influence on the fatigue research in a large part of the world by suggesting the urgent problems to be studied and joining the efforts of many laboratories in different countries.

The stated aims of ICAF are to encourage contacts between people actively engaged in aircraft structural integrity problems and to exchange information, experience, opinions and ideas concerning aeronautical fatigue and fatigue-related subjects.

To this end a conference and a symposium are organized every two years for attendance by representatives of industry, universities and institutes, military specialists, regulatory agencies and aircraft operators throughout the world.

It is followed by a three-day symposium for specialist papers presented by authors with design, manufacturing, airworthiness regulations, operations and research backgrounds.

The symposium also includes the Plantema Memorial Lecture, delivered by a leading member of the structural integrity community, and the presentation of the Schijve Award to a selected young researcher.

In 2018 ICAF has received the ICAS von Karman Award for International Collaboration in Aeronautics, in recognition of the multi-national world-wide work over almost seven decades to ensure the safe flight of both civil and military aircraft.