“Researchers at the Army Research Laboratory (ARL) say they have successfully tested a possible fix ― a means of identifying damage as it happens. ‘We are going to change the entire paradigm,’ said Mulugeta Haile, an ARL research aerospace engineer. ‘We are going to have maintenance-free aircraft, an aircraft that can fly for over 720 hours with no maintenance and no down time. It’s highly ambitious but that is where we are headed.’”
Source: The Army sensors that could lead to maintenance-free aircraft