As pointed out, don't belive everything you read in the papers...again from Yahoo today...ok to believe this?
PARIS (AFP) - Airbus said that a fault discovered in the fuselage of its A380 super jumbo in the spring has been long since resolved, saying it was "astonished" at how the issue was "blown up" in a German magazine article.
The fault is an "old issue which has been fixed", with the company carrying out "reinforcements on the structure, and there is absolutely nothing abnormal about that," a spokeswoman for the European aerospace group said.
In a pre-release of an article to be published on Monday, German weekly Der Spiegel cited internal company documents outlining problems with "section 19" of the fuselage that were detected during trial flights in March in Toulouse, southern France.
During the development of an aircraft, "there are test flights, data checks, during which things are discovered. That's what the tests are for," the Airbus spokeswoman said.
Investors and Airbus customers are highly sensitive about faults with the flagship project after June's shock announcement of wiring problems and resulting major delays in the delivery of the plane to airlines.
The news prompted a slump in the share price of parent company European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company (EADS) and the resignation of the head of Airbus and the co-chief executive of EADS.
The double-decker will be the world's biggest ever commercial airliner with space for between 555 to 840 passengers, about 35 percent more than Boeing's 747 jumbo.
The project received a much-needed vote of confidence earlier this week with Singapore Airlines ordering nine more aircraft after Airbus unveiled revamped design plans at the Farnborough International Airshow in southern England.