One actually knows what's going on.

Think that this is indicative of the state of the US Air Force as a whole?

I think seeing cracks on ONE plane and deciding to review all of them speaks to a pretty high standard.

"But the risk posed by the issue — that the wing could become dislodged from the aircraft — was so serious that the Air Force decided to move forward with inspections for all planes that could potentially be impacted."

I would think that's a minimum standard, not a pretty high one. Having wings fall off is embarrassing, expensive, deadly, and nobody wants to testify before Congress as to why they let that happen.

One of the mechanics on an aircraft carrier I was on (briefly, I'm not military) said that if they find even one nut on the ground, they'll isolate and ground every single plane they think might be affected.

Playing the numbers game is their job. Logistics win wars.

What's the likelihood on this changing the industry as a whole?

The obvious lesson would be not to try to find out if your business has enormous environmental consequences.

Thanks for posting this. I think it's good to learn from others work.

I'm glad that the Lisp language has so many derivatives.