Abstraet: Maintenance is one of the rnajor driving cost in the management of an aircraft. To reduce such a cost a new cencept is n6wadays investigated by severa1 researchers all over the world: the use of a structural health monitoring system.・lhis paper givgs a contribution in this ,particular field. Compact tension (CT) specimens haye been cut from 'an aircraft veftical stabilizer, recently put out of service, inade of Carben Fiber Reinforced Plastic (CFRP). After some preliminary testS on

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... e specirnens perfbrrned to obtain the right parameters, an optical strain gauge (specifically a Fiber Bragg Grating) has been glued on the surfhce ef one specimen and data have been collected during the fatigue test. Correlations between the behtivior ofthe strain response, the crack propagation, the breakage ofthe fibers and the loads applied are presented.