Boeing and Airbus at it again (sigh)

Boeing has been infuriated by Airbus claims about the composites in the new 787 and is busily reassuring airlines that claims about the 787 being grounded by ' a scratch in the paint' are nonsense.

They're like a couple of squabbling kids aren't they! You've got to laugh

and then purely coincidentally

Airbus stresses the advantages of aluminium lithium for the fuselage skin panels of the A350 in terms of resistance to accidental damage, and its ability to undergo standard repair procedures.

Yes, of course they do.





the story

Paint grounding the aircraft? What is this, an F-117?

:shk: Timeout for both of you. Off to bed without subsadies sorry I could not resist.

I did recall a story early on about repair of the composite structure and a field repair kit was under development. However, MRO type stuff lack the sexy nature of specs and sales etc, so I can no longer find it anywhere.

Fred, I think Airbus is hitting at the fact visual testing is not a very quantitative method of checking damage in composites.

You can (sometimes) see there is damage on the surface, but have no idea of what is happening beneath the surface. Without performing some sort of ultrasound examination, you have no idea whether the crack is well within safety limits, or it is approaching critical length for fast propagation.


Its not about the fixing of a problem, its about finding it and diagnosing it right.

[edit on 4-1-2006 by kilcoo316]