787 How long until a major incident/crash???
Discussion
Just wondering what people's thoughts are on the new Boeing 787 as it nears introduction to service and likely reliablility/issues.
Given that Boeing appear to have pushed the boundaries of construction (both materials and supply chain/manufacturing processes) history would suggest there are likely to be some significant issues encountered before it has bedded in as a mature platform.
In particular the all carbon construction has be worried as repair procedures are likely to be more robust/less proven than for metal skinned aircraft. Up until know carbon construction has been limited to tailplanes/fins or specialist applications. An airliner that needs to be a work-horse with constant exposure to service trucks and busy airport environments is going to have a lot more dings and fender-bend incidents. How will the carbon stand up to this???
What do people think??
Given that Boeing appear to have pushed the boundaries of construction (both materials and supply chain/manufacturing processes) history would suggest there are likely to be some significant issues encountered before it has bedded in as a mature platform.
In particular the all carbon construction has be worried as repair procedures are likely to be more robust/less proven than for metal skinned aircraft. Up until know carbon construction has been limited to tailplanes/fins or specialist applications. An airliner that needs to be a work-horse with constant exposure to service trucks and busy airport environments is going to have a lot more dings and fender-bend incidents. How will the carbon stand up to this???
What do people think??
Eric, concorde in it's entire operating life with AF and BA probably racked up less hours than the 787 fleet will in its first 18-24months of operation. Plus Concorde (well the BA ones...;) ) were maintained by the best mechanics in the business with all the time in the world. The 787 is a very different kettle of fish line operations wise. IMHO it will be treated like a Ford Transit van compared to the Ferrari 250 GTO that was Concorde.
My worries are the long term issues with an all composite aircraft. If you look at an old AA MD-80 with its shiny bare metal showing a how collection of dents and dings collected over the years. We know how to analyse these dents and how to repair them. Yet we still get instances like the JAL 747 years ago, or the 737 over Hawaii or more recently 737s were repaired sections of fueslage have later let go. How will composite handle this? Will be it be 'obvious' to a chucker/cateringvan driver that the little bump they just gave the aircraft has actually caused a crack/small hole in the composite? Metal would tend to dent and show signs of the damage easily. Will composite?
I guess we will have to wait and see, and I WILL be totally happy to fly on a 787, but I just think we have a higher risk of a Comet scenario than any other aircraft introduced recently. (Even the A380 was fairly tried and tested tech, just BIG).
My worries are the long term issues with an all composite aircraft. If you look at an old AA MD-80 with its shiny bare metal showing a how collection of dents and dings collected over the years. We know how to analyse these dents and how to repair them. Yet we still get instances like the JAL 747 years ago, or the 737 over Hawaii or more recently 737s were repaired sections of fueslage have later let go. How will composite handle this? Will be it be 'obvious' to a chucker/cateringvan driver that the little bump they just gave the aircraft has actually caused a crack/small hole in the composite? Metal would tend to dent and show signs of the damage easily. Will composite?
I guess we will have to wait and see, and I WILL be totally happy to fly on a 787, but I just think we have a higher risk of a Comet scenario than any other aircraft introduced recently. (Even the A380 was fairly tried and tested tech, just BIG).
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