Aerospace

Commercial airlines can only be profitable if their aircraft spend the maximum amount of time in the air. The effects of component failure vary between inconvenience and high numbers of fatalities. High reliability components are therefore essential for economic as well as safety reasons, and extensive testing is an important part of the development and manufacturing processes.

Military and space applications present a different problem. These products often need to work only once (though under high stress levels), but the consequences of failure can also be both expensive and potentially fatal.

Many reliability test methods, including HALT and HASS techniques, were originally developed to meet the needs of the aerospace industry.