Originally Posted by
Less Hair
Hasn't the claim been the humidity could be set higher because of the CFRP fuselage? Like less corrosion risk or similar?
It's not 'set' higher - as Dinger noted there simply isn't much moisture in the outside air at 35k - compressing it and heating it doesn't change that regardless of how you do it.
What they were able to do on the 787 - that hadn't been done previously - was have humidifiers to improve the humidity of the passenger (and crew) air. The carbon fiber construction meant there is no corrosion risk associated with that, but the ability to add humidifiers for passenger comfort has always been there - just seldom used.
It's up to the operator as to if they bother to service the humidifiers with water between flights...
BTW, for all the problems the Trent 1000 has been having, the current generation of engines is
still an order of magnitude more reliable than what was available 40 years ago. Back then, people thought a shutdown every 10,000 hours was just fine, today a shutdown every 100,000 hours is cause for concern.