Free Republic

Residents of a neighborhood in Las Vegas got an unwelcome surprise in the form of an airplane door falling out of the sky and hitting an apartment building and car. The incident took place near Nellis Air Force Base, which is just northeast of Las Vegas. It is unclear what type of plane the debris fell off, but it did not appear to come from a civilian aircraft.

The aft bulkhead of the F-35B BH-1 fatigue-test specimen has developed cracks after 1,500 hours of durability testing, Ares has learned. This is less than one-tenth of the planned fatigue test program, which is designed to prove an 8,000-hour airframe life with a safety factor of two. The bulkhead design was modified in the course of the jet's weight-saving redesign in 2004-05, switching from forged titanium - proven on the F-22 - to a new aluminum forging process developed by Alcoa. According to Lockheed Martin,"the cracks were discovered during a special inspection when a test engineer discovered an anomaly." The...

Airframer data for the crashed Afriqiyah Airways Airbus A330-200 shows that it had accumulated just 1,600 flight hours before the accident. Airbus has confirmed the carrier's identification of the airframe as serial number 1024, adding that it had conducted some 420 flights since delivery in September. "Preliminary reports indicate that the aircraft crashed short of the runway threshold during approach," it adds. There is no information on the level of experience of the cockpit crew. Afriqiyah confirms that a child was the sole survivor from among the 93 passengers - mainly Dutch nationals - and 11 crew on board. Video...

Airbus closes in on decision on proposal for local assembly of narrowbody airliners at rate of four a month. Assembly of the first Chinese-built Airbus A320 family aircraft could begin before the end of next year, should Airbus decide to go ahead with the proposed joint venture. Airbus is examining whether to create a Chinese final assembly line as a result of the 150-aircraft A320 family order signed last month. “It makes sense to open this market with further industrial co-operation in China and the as­sembly line is a logical further step,” says Airbus chief executive Gustav Humbert. “It will...