Hello all.
N380UA, I am aware of what you're saying and let me correct myself. Airlines do take their part especially in the development process since after all they are the customers and the bigger the (potential) customer the more influence they can make.
However I did not see one of their representatives while working on development programs (Bombardier, Boeing).
If there was some involvement it was on the side of engine decisions (which performance is the customer interested in etc) and also on the side of interior arrangement. For all other stuff it was mostly involvement at the preliminary level.
What I mean is that I have never seen an airline engineer taking part in the engineering process for its early phase (setting DR&O).
I have seen their involvement only at the marketing level (MR&O), before anything was put on the table.
Currently I do not see any of them on one of the new, development, projects and I am aware of the same situation on at least two more which are either in their early phase or in flight test (Boeing, Bombardier and Airbus, respectively).
Bus429:
For example you gave us, probably MRB (Liaison) group left this hole although it should have been plugged. It is strange that all inspections required did not catch that error.
As for the structural integrity that does not create a big problem, for a short time. Therefore, as you say it is strange it was not picked during "C" or "D" check. Not to mention factory QA and QC.
Last edited by Grunf; 28th October 2005 at 20:51.