Originally Posted by airship
I don't understand how these
"honeycomb core and fibreglass composite skin" structures can really be considered so advanced and
untested 
...they've been used in boat building for donkey's years now and not a single yacht I know of has ever fallen out of the sky yet!
Uhmmm well, there have been a few embarassing occasions when an America's cup boat or two might have lost its keel and everyone became inverted I suppose.
Of course the yachts don't use skydrol in their hydraulic systems either. Skydrol is great stuff in its place but it appears that it's place is not in the A300 tail structure.