Article

2012-01-13 -Short Attention Span Theater-

Cracks found in the wings of three Airbus A380s

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Posted by gorb 2012-01-13 03:19|| || Front Page|| [11131 views ] Top

#1 I recall one (I think it was aircraft) design remedy was to put a slot where the cracks formed. A 'controlled" crack, because it doesn't grow beyond the slot.

Sometimes cracks for just because there needs to be a tiny bit of movement right there.

Posted by Bobby 2012-01-13 09:34|| 2012-01-13 09:34|| Front Page Top

#2 Remember in development the A380 only just passed it's wing bending tests. There was a bit of a scramble to beef them up, IIRC.

Posted by Grunter 2012-01-13 10:41|| 2012-01-13 10:41|| Front Page Top

#3 So a wing falls off, so what? Jets can fly on only one engine.

Posted by Perfesser 2012-01-13 10:54|| 2012-01-13 10:54|| Front Page Top

#4 that's why they have two wings - for redundancy

Posted by Frank G 2012-01-13 11:35|| 2012-01-13 11:35|| Front Page Top

#5 Australian Licensed Aircraft Engineers Association - Union connected organization for Aircraft Inspectors and other maintenance personnel including the folks that clean the planes at the end of the day. Nothing to do with Aircraft Design. They are NOT Engineers, no more than a "Sanitation Engineer" would be.

To be taken with a grain or two of salt.

Posted by tipover 2012-01-13 12:14|| 2012-01-13 12:14|| Front Page Top

#6 Socialism on the march ....

Posted by Mike Ramsey 2012-01-13 12:26|| 2012-01-13 12:26|| Front Page Top

#7 If it ain't Boeing, I ain't going.

Posted by Alaska Paul 2012-01-13 12:52|| 2012-01-13 12:52|| Front Page Top

#8 that's why they have two wings - for redundancy

Truer than you may think, Frank. Rantburgers may remember this story (starts about 30 seconds in)...

Posted by Ricky bin Ricardo (Abu Babaloo) 2012-01-13 14:31|| 2012-01-13 14:31|| Front Page Top

#9 If it ain't Boeing, I ain't going.

Ummm...I might have to draw the line at the 787 Dreamliner. Composite frame structures in the fuselage and wings? Okay, I'm not an engineer and I don't even play one on television, but my first instinct is that an airplane with plastic wings belongs on my 4 year old great-nephew's bookshelf, not 35,000 feet in the air.

Posted by Ricky bin Ricardo (Abu Babaloo) 2012-01-13 14:37|| 2012-01-13 14:37|| Front Page Top

#10 Duct tape can fix 'er right up.

Posted by rjschwarz 2012-01-13 14:43|| 2012-01-13 14:43|| Front Page Top

#11 Stop drill the ends of the cracks and go for broke, no pun intended.

Posted by Alaska Paul 2012-01-13 15:55|| 2012-01-13 15:55|| Front Page Top

#12 Yes, Ricky, I will tend to agree with you, pending some years of ops experience with the 787. Lots of innovation, but a whole different technology.

Posted by Alaska Paul 2012-01-13 16:08|| 2012-01-13 16:08|| Front Page Top

#13 My Brother-in-law worked on the 787 and he is an aerospace engineer. The composite material allows bending and flexing without the fatigue. I.E. it can be pressurized and bent without the crystalline structure breaking down, since the composites allow the different crystalline molecules to pass the stresses on.

Think of it as a line of kids playing red rover and they all have hard carbon torsos and rubber arms. Now think of millions of those lines woven together. Pretty impressive stuff.

I will fly Boeing anyday over the Airbus.

Posted by DarthVader 2012-01-13 17:23|| 2012-01-13 17:23|| Front Page Top

#14 Ricky, the F-15 wasn't originally made with fly-by-wire (computer oontrolled flight systems), so the air frame had flight dynamics that allowed gliding in to a landing in some emergency situations. Fly-by-wire air frames are, in contrast, tend to to drop like a rock if they lose power to the flight control system, and the FCS can't necessarily compensate for damage to the wings well. Generalization but useful in thinking about such things ....

Posted by lotp 2012-01-13 17:58|| 2012-01-13 17:58|| Front Page Top

#15 on the bright side if noone dies, this will keep lots of Euro-engineers in jobs.

Posted by Kojack 2012-01-13 18:57|| 2012-01-13 18:57|| Front Page Top

#16 Alaska Paul beat me to my post.

Posted by Mizzou Mafia 2012-01-13 19:49|| 2012-01-13 19:49|| Front Page Top

#17 he's sneaky that way

Posted by Frank G 2012-01-13 20:43|| 2012-01-13 20:43|| Front Page Top

#18 Spent many years repairing cracks in aircraft, all over the damn things; a complete inspection to identify problems is critical. When the metal Intruder wings first failed (VA-128) it was a catastrophic failure that eventually led to the composite replacement wings.
If you look at my second favorite-est airplane, the Hornet ( sarc) those little vertical fences on the wings next to the fuselage are there to straighten out the airflow around the vertical stabs; the buffeting caused the mounting flanges to crack.
787 concerns: not with scheduled maintenance, but 'ramp rash;' metal airplanes leave dents ( witness marks) plastic doesn't, but can start a delamination internally. If the afore mentioned inspections don't catch it in time, there will be no 'small crack,' but a full failure of the area.
I'm going to give the Dreamliner 5 years in service before I climb in one.

Posted by USN, Ret. 2012-01-13 20:44|| 2012-01-13 20:44|| Front Page Top

#19 *happy sigh*. Another day of learning at Rantburg U.

Posted by trailing wife 2012-01-13 23:39|| 2012-01-13 23:39|| Front Page Top

23:39 trailing wife
23:16 Anonymoose
23:13 Unush Panda7572
22:52 Barbara
22:23 Ebboluling Theamp7972
21:29 whatadeal
21:28 Alaska Paul
21:27 JosephMendiola
21:26 European Conservative
21:24 whatadeal
21:24 European Conservative
21:16 JosephMendiola
21:15 Frank G
21:14 whatadeal
21:05 JosephMendiola
21:03 Steve White
21:03 European Conservative
20:58 European Conservative
20:58 JosephMendiola
20:57 Frank G
20:56 Frank G
20:54 European Conservative
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20:44 USN, Ret.