Six Singapore Airlines A380s wing cracks

[markis10]

As expected, its 6 from 6 for SQ

Singapore Airlines said on Monday it had found examples of recently identified wing cracks in all six of the Airbus A380s on which it carried out mandatory inspections, as a senior pilot issued reassurance over the superjumbo's safety.
The discovery of more instances of cracked wing components was expected after Airbus said last week it had found the problem and predicted that until it had time to conduct repairs, a consistent pattern would emerge in further tests.
The European planemaker and airlines insist the world's largest airliner is safe to fly, but are keen to move beyond the issue of small cracks in wing brackets that grabbed media attention and triggered compulsory checks last week.

Read more: Singapore Airlines finds cracks in wings of six A380s
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[bat21]

Sorry guys & gals, don't know what the source of this is as I saw the post on a blog but there was no refernce to where the article was sourced. It was dated 27 January 2012. Seems these little A380 crack stories wont go away.



Cracked: six Singapore Airlines A380s have wing issues


After Airbus’ halo A380 superjumbo was revealed to have a wing issue that saw small cracks start to develop on the new planes, Singapore Airlines has confirmed six of its A380s have suffered from the issue.

Singapore Airlines was the first to fly the famous A380 superjumbo, with Sydney being its first destination. Since launch, SIA now has 14 of the planes in service, but only six had done enough miles to qualify for the mandatory inspection for wing cracks. As expected, all six of the planes had cracks.
The small cracks occur on L-shaped wing brackets and are relatively simple to fix. It was first discovered on a Qantas A380 after its engine exploded in 2010. Of the six planes grounded with the issue, Singapore Airlines has already fixed four with the other two to be done soon.
Any airline operating the A380 has to complete checks of the wings if the aircrafts they are operating have completed more than 1,300 takeoffs and landings.
Airbus has said the results of the checks are expected and the fix is relatively simple.

 

[AVC]

Well, a new design is always going to have issues. I guess it's good that they have found the problem "on the ground" and not post disaster.

It's a bit like new cars. Let someone else buy the new model and wait a year while they iron out the faults which will inevitably develop.

What's more interesting is that the Q bird that blew the Trent 900 is still sitting on the ground where it landed, coz they can't fly it back to Europe to fix the main spar. The new bonded design means the original factory jigs need to be employed to effect the repair. Too bad for RR, because they're paying the bills.

 

[serfty]

...
What's more interesting is that the Q bird that blew the Trent 900 is still sitting on the ground where it landed, coz they can't fly it back to Europe to fix the main spar. The new bonded design means the original factory jigs need to be employed to effect the repair. Too bad for RR, because they're paying the bills.

I believe Nancy Bird is being repaired on site at SIN.

They may have even transported 'factory jigs' to the island to do so.

 

[AVC]

yeah, they pretty much had no choice. It wasn't something they ever considered would happen, having to move part of their factory abroad to fix an airframe. I wonder what the total cost of repair is versus a new one.

 

[samh004]

Still time to buy some 748’s

 

[straitman]

A good article from a respected publication.

The last paragraph, on a slightly different topic, is also very interesting.


A380 Wing Fixes Cause Little Disruption


Feb 3, 2012


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[TD="class: storyAuthor, align: left"]By Jens Flottau [email protected], Robert Wall [email protected]
DUBAI, LONDON[/TD]
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[TD="class: storyBody, align: left"]

A European Aviation Safety Agency mandate on A380 operators to inspect and potentially fix L-shaped wing rib-feet has so far had a minor impact on service operations at Singapore Airlines. Lufthansa also does not see major issues once its aircraft are up for review.

Singapore Airlines had by far the largest number of A380s affected by the inspection regime. It found cracks on all six aircraft inspected, with five returned to service already and a sixth to be back in operations on February 4. No major service disruptions resulted although some A380 flights were downgauged to Boeing 777-300ERs while the Airbus aircraft was being fixed.

Similarly, Lufthansa’s director of A380 introduction, Dean Rainieri, says he does not expect any major disruptions. Lufthansa currently has a fleet of eight aircraft, but they are not yet affected due to their low number of flight hours.

The situation matches Airbus projections. The aircraft maker has identified fixes that mitigate the cracking by changing its wing assembly process and also is looking to use a different material for the wing rib-feet for extra strength.[/TD]
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