c0t0d0s0.org - Aviation

787 wing break test

nospam@example.com (Joerg Moellenkamp) — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 10:54:59 +0100

Boeing was successful at breaking a part of a 787. Successful means: It broke at more than the oneandahalf-fold ever-expected maximum aerodynamic load. Anyway .... there is a video of the test and looking at engineers breaking huge things with huge tools is really cool ... Dear Boeing ... now do this with a full wing ...

People from Switzerland are strange

nospam@example.com (Joerg Moellenkamp) — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 10:07:15 +0100

Or to be exact: At least their sense of humor in regard of their airline. The Map application in the Swiss A340-300 is really interesting. They show some POI in their map. I remember at least: Thresher, Titanic, Empress of Ireland and the Wilhelm Gustloff. Those points mark big disasters in maritime history.

When it rains, it pours ...

nospam@example.com (Joerg Moellenkamp) — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 16:14:20 +0100

Okay, the bad messages from Boeing doesn't end: The flight blogger reports , that Boeing has to replace of nut plates because of non-conformance to specification, as they used ones without an anti-corrosive coating. Mechanics have to remove thousands of plates and place new ones per aircraft.

To add insult to injury, it's likely that several already flying planes have the same non-conforming plates:

According to Boeing, 737s delivered to customers since August 2007 contained non-conforming nutplates. Boeing's delivery website says that 394 737s were delivered between August 2007 and October 2008.

Yet another 787 delay

nospam@example.com (Joerg Moellenkamp) — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 07:37:32 +0100

Okay, this starts to get ridiclious. Boeing announced another delay in the 787 program according to this article. The first flight is rescheduled to next year and they didn´t announced a new date. The delivery of the first aircrafts in 2009 look impossible for me.

While everybody expected that the IAM strike would have some impact to the schedule, there is another reason: Wrong installation of fasteners. According to Boeing 3% of all fasteners were incorrectly installed.

An estimated 3 percent of the fasteners on four flight-test planes at the Everett plant, plus two others that have been assembled for ground testing, were installed incorrectly and will have to be removed and replaced.

At a count of several hundred-thousands fasteners per aircraft, 3% is a lot of work. Another article at the Wall Street Journal writes:

Engineers have traced it to improper instructions on what type and length of fasteners to use on certain titanium parts. The fasteners, located throughout the airplane, were installed mostly by suppliers at the plants where the major sections of the jet are being built, and affect all fuselage sections built so far

.I start to get some doubts about entering a 787 when it will entering service in the future.

LRBL

nospam@example.com (Joerg Moellenkamp) — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 10:56:49 +0100

There is a new requirement from the FAA. Any airplane certified after the 28 November has to have a desginated LRBL. It´s one of this security theater things from my point of view. A LRBL is a "least risk bomb location", a location where a bomb explosion would inflict the least damage to the aircraft. I see some problems in such a location.

You have to move the bomb to get it to the LRBL. At first you have to find someone who is brave enough to move around an live explosive device. As we know of several hollywood movies ( ) an explosive device would have an trap fuse, that would trigger the the explosion in the event of moving it around. You should at least keep the existence secret and hidden in the aircrafts operation manual to prevent the addition of such trap fuses to terrorists bombs or the usage of an more potent explosive substance.

At the end: It´s the classic ammunition/armour competition. There is always one winner and it´s always the same competitor: The ammunition.The only way to increase the airliner explosive survivability is to keep of the explosives offboard.

Pedantic nation

nospam@example.com (Joerg Moellenkamp) — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 20:55:02 +0100

I had my trip back to Hamburg from Toulouse today. Was a nice flight. Well, except the contact with the ground crew in Toulouse. I had the impertinence to try to board while the boarding of rows 12 to 25 took place. The look from the lady was able to kill mere mortals. She didn´t allowed me to board the plane. Okay ... waiting 30 seconds. She announced the immediate boarding of all rows. Now i was allowed to enter the aircraft. Dammed! French people are really pedantic for a nation with a revolution in its history ...

Nacktscanner

nospam@example.com (Joerg Moellenkamp) — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 09:53:54 +0200

Hmmm ... die Diskussion, die dieser Tage durch die Medien getrieben wird, kommt mir seltsam bekannt vor: In "Maximal invasive Sicherheit" habe ich 2005 erstmals ueber Backscatter-Röntgen geschrieben. Ich muss mittlerweile sagen, das ich weniger Probleme mit der Technik habe, als damaligerzeit. Mittlerweile sind die Geräte soweit entwickelt, das sie den Körper aus dem Bild herausfiltern und somit nur noch Fremdkörper auf dem Bild zu sehen ist. Also nicht die "Kleine-Jungs"-Phantasie mit der durch Klamotten guckenden Brille. In den Flughaefen in den USA ist es uebrigens ueblich, das die Bilder nicht von den Leute geprueft werden, die auch die Menschen dazu sehen, sondern diese in einem getrennten, entfernten Raum gescreened werden.

Airtraffic over Europe

nospam@example.com (Joerg Moellenkamp) — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 19:52:54 +0200

An impressive video, that shows the traffic over the european continent. Some of the race tracks above germany are really obvious ... for example the one between Northern Germany and Frankfurt.

Really small steps

nospam@example.com (Joerg Moellenkamp) — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 10:31:39 +0200

Perhaps it´s just me, but i think there must be really big problems in the 787 program, when Boeing celebrates such small steps as a successful static pressure test.

In the paintshop

nospam@example.com (Joerg Moellenkamp) — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 21:13:53 +0200

A380 delivered to Quantas

nospam@example.com (Joerg Moellenkamp) — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 17:09:26 +0200

Quantas got its first A380 and arrived in Sydney:

On board the delivery flight, Captain Peter Probert, whose father brought the first Boeing 747 into Australia in 1971, told passengers that the flight had been a career highlight

In my opinion, the livery of the Quantas A380 is the most beautiful so far ...

More delays for the 787 program

nospam@example.com (Joerg Moellenkamp) — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 19:55:32 +0200

The problems in the 787 program doesn´t seem to end. The flightblogger reports about further delays in the assembly of Delayliner, sorry ... Dreamliner One:

According to several sources inside the 787 program and others familiar with the schedule, assembly completion of Dreamliner One is now tentatively targeted for early October, a slip of about five weeks.

Assembly completion was initially set for August 31, just four days prior to the expiration of the IAM's three-year contract.

This retargeting was done before the union of the aircraft workers voted for a strike. I really start to think, that there won´t be any deliveries in 2009, really bad new for an aircraft that was initially planned to bring guests to the Olympic games in Beijing ....

Interims report about the 777 crash at Heathrow

nospam@example.com (Joerg Moellenkamp) — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 19:42:30 +0200

You may remember the crash at Heathrow, where an 777 landed short of the runway. The UKs Air Accidents Investigation Branch published an report to document the actual state of the investigation. At the moment, they think that ice buildup in the fuel system took out both engines. This can happen as fuel contains a certain amount of water. But the ice buildup is a little bit strange, as the aircraft was operated within the certified operational envelope, thus the AAIB already recommended that the aircraft security authorities should look after this issue not only for the 777 with Trent engines, but for future certifications.

Final approach ...

nospam@example.com (Joerg Moellenkamp) — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 20:58:39 +0200

A380-900

nospam@example.com (Joerg Moellenkamp) — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 18:06:43 +0200

They don´t have their own A380 aircrafts but after Air France/KLM there is a second airline interested in a even bigger A380 as Mr. Gallois disclosed in a newspaper interview. The german Lufthansa wants this plane, too. The A380-900 would be able to carry 963 passengers.

More news about the Spanair crash

nospam@example.com (Joerg Moellenkamp) — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 22:22:49 +0200

Relatively short after the crash there were rumours about deployed thrust reversers at one of the engines of the Spanair aircraft and shortly after this you were able to find a photo (login needed) of this engine at the usual discussion areas. Today two spanish newspaper reported according to Aviationweek and the german newssite sueddeutsche.de (based on dpa) that the thrust reverser of one engine were found in the deployed position.

Albeit this would explain some of the reported reactions of the plane, it´s much to early to draw any conclusions. The question is now: Were the reversers in this position before the crash or were they moved in this position by the crash. We have to wait for the final accident report ...

PS: Nevertheless this evoked memories to the LaudaAir 004 crash in me: Mid-air deployment of the reversers in 24,700 feet. Nobody in the aircraft survived the crash.

Jahresbericht 2007 der Bundestelle fuer Flugunfalluntersuchung

nospam@example.com (Joerg Moellenkamp) — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 20:51:32 +0200

Wer sich dafür interessiert, was so im Dunstkreis der Bundesstelle für Flugunfalluntersuchung so an Unfällen und Störungen passiert ist, kann sich mal den Jahresbericht 2007 durchlesen. Ist aber vielleicht keine Lektüre für Leute mit Flugangst.

Spanair crash

nospam@example.com (Joerg Moellenkamp) — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 14:26:52 +0200

Journalists, especially those working for TV news programs are a little bit weird. Every few days they repeat Discovery Channel documentations about aircraft crash analysis (UA811, TWA800, El-Al Flight 1862, Swiss-Air 111) here in Germany - for example N24 - about the difficult and problematic post crash analysis. Sometime it takes years to find the real reason of an aircraft crash. Nevertheless journalists bash Spanair for giving no further informations about the causes for the crash. They should know better, at least when they look they own news programm. Nobody can tell more than speculative assumptions after just 2 days.

The bad thing: In an interview, a woman blamed Spanair for giving her less informations than the news. The problem: The news in the news are just rumours.

And then the Air Accident report will give an exact answer to the crash cause in a few months, no TV programm will report about it. Well, they will report about it, if Discovery Channel makes a documentation about it ... telling how hard it was to find the reason ... again ...

Interesting development at the USAF tanker proposal

nospam@example.com (Joerg Moellenkamp) — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 22:16:44 +0200

According to a report at Aviationweek Boeing thinks about to leave the tanker rebidding process. The new proposal gives more credits to a bigger tanker and thus a 767 based tanker wouldn´t be competitive to a A330 based tanker ... and as i wrote before. A 777 based tanker is no alternative for Boeing besides of the short timeframe for this proposal.

Now, however, the Pentagon is pushing for the replacement tankers as soon as possible after multiple delays. It remains unclear if a no-bid position from Boeing would drag out the KC-X competition or it if would compel the Pentagon to attempt a sole-source of the work to Northrop Grumman/EADS.

This is an interesting development. Stopping the former decision with the help of the GOA just do leave the proposal process afterwards will not help to make friends for future proposals ....

More 787 delays imminent?

nospam@example.com (Joerg Moellenkamp) — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 09:06:46 +0200

The last three delays for the 787 were related to supply chain problems, now Boeing told the press that there are certification problems with the brake monitoring software as RedOrbit reports in: Boeing 787 Dreamliner Experiences Another Delay:

Shanahan, who has led the 787 program since October last year, said the latest hitch has been delays in getting the software in the 787's brake control system verified to meet stringent certification requirements. [...|"It's not that the brakes don't work, it's the traceability of the software," Shanahan said[...]He said that Crane had to go back and rewrite certain parts of the brake control software to verify it for the certification process.

My sources in the airline industry told me that the certification is the hardest part at building a plane and thus problem can haunt you for a while when you are not really cautious. In addition to that the damages part of the Dreamliner Four introduce further timing problems, as they have to rebuild that section completly.

Well, i hope that Boeing is able to get rid of the problem. Another delay doesn´t really sound as beneficial for the company. They already sold near of a thousand airplanes and only a million dollars of additional contract fines per plane would cost them $1bn now.

Nachteil eines etwas selteneren Nachnamens ....

nospam@example.com (Joerg Moellenkamp) — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 21:34:30 +0200

Ist ja echt schade, das mein Nachname etwas seltener ist ... sonst wuerde mir die Air Berlin vielleicht auch die Bordkarten für interessante Ziele anderer Leute anbieten .... Immer nur nach München mit AB zu fliegen ist auf die Dauer doch langweilig

News from the tanker deal

nospam@example.com (Joerg Moellenkamp) — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 18:55:00 +0200

Well, Northop lost the deal after the GAO ruling, there will be an new Request for Proposals ... but i really think that Boeing won´t get the deal in the next attempt either when there is no further political counterfire.

The problem is somewhat bigger: Let´s assume Boeing has enough time to build a tanker on the foundation of the 777 airframe to get a bigger aircraft. They have another problem: They do not have the capacities to build it. The 777 is a successful plane and in addition to that they sell this planes as an interims solution for airlines with an urgent need for aircrafts since the 787 is vastly delayed at the moment. The USAF would be a customer like anyone else and do not believe Boeing can explain to their commercial customers that the next 150 airframes are reserved for the USAF ... which in turn would be nice for Airbus: More A330/A340 to sell. And they can´t put the tanker 777 at the end of the line. At several locations in the net you can read that they need a replacement for their old tankers really soon.

The solution with the 767 wouldn´t have this problem. It´s an EOLed planed for commercial customers and thus they have the capacities to produce it in the old assembly lines. So the point "the airforce wants a bigger tanker" is a real problem to Boeing. They are dependent to the old requirements in the request for an proposal. And in some news outlets in the US you can already see the lobbying against a modification of the requirements in favour of an bigger plane.

I think, the end of this year will really interesting for both companies.

747 crashes at start

nospam@example.com (Joerg Moellenkamp) — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 22:09:09 +0200

On May 25th a 747 of Kalitta Air breaked in parts after a rejected take off after shooting over the end of the runway. It looks like Kalitta Air has a strain of bad luck at the moment: CNN reported that another 747 crashed into a house near Bogota: 747 freighter crashes in Colombia. The second crash of a Kalitta aircraft in 6 weeks. According to other news services it was the N714CK, a converted 747-200. This aircraft was delivered in 1981, thus it was 29 years old.

787 problems

nospam@example.com (Joerg Moellenkamp) — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 08:57:44 +0200

I don´t think, that i will fly with the 787 anytime soon ... even in case, this baby will fly next year. There are new delays in the programs. As far as the usual suspects report, a mechanic at Alenia was able to destroy a complete barrel of the fuselage by using wrong fasteners. The damage was so severe, that they wait for a new center fuselage barrel.

Okay, this can happen, but this rises some questions for me as an outsider to this business : How do Boeing expect that an ordinary flight mechanic can repair the 787 on the apron, when a catering truck bumps into the plane or an uncautious loader rams its vehicle into lower deck? When even the people at the factory are unable to repair a damage? And to think it the other way round: Will they throw away such fuselage parts in the future or will they repair this to save some money (Boeing is a public traded company and i think Fight Club was right with it´s presentation of the internal logic of companies). The damage must have been severe enough that Boeing examines it complete schedule as Dreamliner Four plays an important role in the flight test schedule. And this just by the mistake of a single mechanic.

Additionally: This damage happpened at a part of the plane that was problematic for Boeing in the past as reported for example at Design News: Boeing Stiffens 787 Wing Box Spars: More Schedule Delays Possible.

Some strange: AirportBusiness.com reports in "787 partner halts work briefly after FAA audit":

The South Carolina plant that assembles the mid-fuselage of Boeing's 787 Dreamliner halted production for 24 hours beginning Monday night after a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) audit found lax manufacturing procedures that could result in damage to the aircraft sections.
[...]
He said it wasn't surprising the FAA found issues, given the high number of workers there who "never worked on airplanes before.
[...]
"In the beginning ... they were basically looking the other way to get the plane built," said the contractor. "Now people are paying attention to procedures and everything is being done by the letter of the law."

Sorry that i can´t resist ... but: The test flight pilots should wear parachutes not only on first flight

Well, i´m not in the aircraft business and i´m just a interested outsider , but at the moment my confidence as an upcoming consumer in this aircraft is waning at best ...

A good compromise for the USAF tanker dispute?

nospam@example.com (Joerg Moellenkamp) — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 18:23:52 +0200

Okay, most times a good compromise is a good thing, but Thomas Cook goes a tad too far ...

(via: Flight International)

Aviation News - Calendar Week 25

nospam@example.com (Joerg Moellenkamp) — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 12:38:47 +0200

I´ve collected some comments from the aviation world in the last few days:

Continue reading "Aviation News - Calendar Week 25"

Insults

nospam@example.com (Joerg Moellenkamp) — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 10:21:34 +0200

I know some of the people, which were temporaely relocated to Airbus in Toulouse, and i know they work really hard for their money. So i have no grasp for the insults made by Mr. Gallois. In a interview with AFP Mr. Galois wants to send the german back to Hamburg as soon as possible.He stated that german employees work less than their colleagues and they stay to long in front of the coffee machine.WTF? Employee motivation looks different. But i assume, that wasn´t the objective of such comments.

Horrible death

nospam@example.com (Joerg Moellenkamp) — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 11:49:36 +0200

An aircraft mechanic died yesterday a really horrible death as reported by www.aero-news.net - Mechanic Dies In Engine Accident On Tenerife:

An aircraft mechanic working on the engine of an Airbus A320 in the Canary Islands died when he was ingested into the turbofan during a run-up exercise Monday night.

Flugangst - Geistiges Klarkommen

nospam@example.com (Joerg Moellenkamp) — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 15:47:54 +0200

Nun hat man sich also ein Ziel gesetzt. Man will fliegen. Es ist der erste Schritt und jede Reise beginnt mit einem solchen. Doch im Flugzeug sitzt man damit noch lange nicht.
Continue reading "Flugangst - Geistiges Klarkommen"

Boeing 787 - first power on

nospam@example.com (Joerg Moellenkamp) — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 07:46:48 +0200

The Flight Blogger reports in this article that the first power-on testing of the 787 had started. Interestingly this is one month after the planed delivery based on the original schedule . But good to see that this program makes some progress.