Posted on 07/09/2008 9:38:43 AM PDT by XR7
AIRLINES are desperate. With jet fuel over $4 per gallon and still climbing, American, United and other major carriers are raising fares, cutting flights, trimming fleets and laying off pilots. They're also ordering fuel-efficient Boeing 787s and Airbus A350XWBs — the new generation of plastic planes.
These new aircraft promise 20-percent-lower fuel consumption. Replacing heavier traditional aluminum alloys, 50 percent of their skins, panels and load-bearing structures are comprised of lighter, stiffer carbon-fiber-reinforced-plastic (CFRP) composites. Then add the latest, most fuel-efficient engine technology. Sounds good.
But beneath these advantages danger lurks — novel maintenance challenges for which neither airlines nor the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) are prepared. Overall, today's jetliners have reached a plateau of such aerodynamic and propulsive efficiency that individual Boeing 737s or Airbus A300 aircraft often spend two or three decades in service, as will new 787s and A350s.
Regarding fleet recapitalization, that was good news for the airlines' bottom line — and for their stockholders — until fuse pin metal fatigue allowed engines to fall off the wings of 747s and corrosion caused the 1988 explosive decompression of an Aloha 737 at 24,000 feet, as the top of the fuselage peeled back and sucked out a flight attendant.
Now, composite aircraft components have also begun to rain from the sky.
Shortly after takeoff in November 2001, the entire composite vertical fin of American Airlines' Flight 587 was ripped from the A300's fuselage; 265 people died...
(Excerpt) Read more at crosscut.com ...
Every time a new airplane, especially a revolutionary airplane is introduced into service, the doomsayers dream up scenarios where in their considered opinion, disaster will ensue. All I can say about the latest is:
If you are a retired General, no-one pays you money to write about how well a program is running. Where’s the news in that?
What's 8 hours sitting on asphalt in the summer Las Vegas sun going to do to the glue that holds the plastic together? They'll have to move their long term airplane storage yards out of the dry air desert.
Summary: Change is bad.
Blaming the AA587 crash on pilot error always stunk!
Yep. We’ve been flying plastic airplanes for quite a while now.
Nothing so gentle as commercial flight.
High load combat and training missions.
Only one loss due to mechanical failure, and that required a maintenance failure of some magnitude - not installing half the bolts needed to hold a wing on!
I knew I read this guys name before, here is his take on the 2nd amendment decision before it was made.
I would be more concerned with a plane with parts MADE IN COMMUNIST CHINA than a plane with AMERICAN made plastic parts.
Location of the factory...not the material used...is a bigger concern
What a friggin waste of bandwidth.
Yep. QC = Quality Control, we have it, they don’t.
It’s why I would never consider flying on a Chinese or Russian made plane while I would fly on a Japanese or even a Korean plane if I had to without fear.
Made in America.
Maintained in Columbia.
Using Chinese parts...
Ugh.
LOL considering they made those things out of WOOD!...
Wood. Just like Polaris missile nose cones...
Stories like this make me glad I decided some time ago to never fly again.
I feel sorry for those that have to fly every week. Putting up with all the crap must be very stressful.
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