Originally Posted by
Rodak
I'd be curious to learn how the defects were discovered and isolated to eight aircraft. Did Boeing look at all manufacturing inspection data for this joint for all aircraft?
Interesting that TAC (J Ostrower) doesn't note how it was detected. Maybe his Twitter stream will say something about this, if and when it emerges.
Assuming (always risky on a forum where speculation is frowned upon . . . ) that the two issues were uncovered by review of inspection data, hmmm, what is the nominal time lag between generating of the data sufficient to review for such issues, and these inspections? Is that time lag (if it exists) subject to particular engineering discipline standards (prompted by "tolerance" issue re: Italian production earlier)? Were any of the certification Special Conditions - some were pertinent to this first very extensive use of composite materials in the airframe, weren't they? - pertinent to time lags between completion of inspection data sets and review of this data?
I'm not going to say anything specific about No Highway in the Sky.