[jettester]

When we we're testing the C-17's wing, a similar occurred but at a slightly lower value. Structural mods included beef-ups on both forward and aft spars and a reduction in the chem-milling of the skins around the failure area. All in all, these kind of fixes are relatively easy to implement unless you have many of the parts in the production cycle already.

The real proof in the pudding is when they (and if) they do a full scale fatigue test under flight loads to find out if the wing and wing root connections will withstand the stress. My guess is that there will be some future beefing up to do - they just won't admit it publicly.

[Frank_Discussion]

Mmmm... C-17! They fly one over the house every year during the airshow, monster low.

I'm not entirely surprised that C-17 did have a similar problem, but this is a passenger plane in this story. Their lack of conservatism in design is a physical and perceptual problem for their customer base.

[CdMGuy]

Wouldn't beefing up equal higher fuel consumption? As I recall from reading a while back, they already had a problem meeting the fuel consumption standards they advertised to their customers.