With the useful lives of many aircraft being extended, in‐service inspection, repair, and related support activities represent a considerable commitment of resources. Periodic maintenance operations involve comprehensive nondestructive inspections (NDI) and significant aircraft downtime for compilation of data, disposition of results, and any needed repairs. Confining the inspections to known or suspected problem areas still requires time to cover the area adequately, and to detect and assess flaws. Reducing this inspection time requires advance knowledge of the condition of the structure with respect to the existence and probable location of defects. Recent work has demonstrated the viability of active damage interrogation (ADI) for continuous monitoring of structural health. Piezoelectric transducers are used to actively excite and sense the vibration characteristics of the structure and use this information to make estimates regarding the health of the structure. By detecting changes in the structure’s vibration signature, damage can be detected, localized, and assessed; however, additional information may be needed to accurately quantify flaws or damage. This paper will present a concept for a hybridization of ADI and NDI technologies. © 2003 American Institute of Physics