Experiment is probably the incorrect term, they will have had many 'experiments' before going with the composites. It would be correct to call this a "demonstration of a major structural repair of composites." the prime objective will be to get it right.

From an industry point of view everyone will be interested - it is not a Boeing only problem, A-350's will be in the same boat. An effective repair and back to flight will quieten the noise from the peanut gallery about composites. Already, thanks to the prolonged flame throwing ELT strapped right against the composite hull, it is apparent that composites will not irretrievably combust.

This mishap although unwelcome could in the longer term become a positive.

Ian

Am not Boeing bashing but the A350 is manufactured using composite panels I would think a lot easier to repair than Boeings barrel construction.

Assuming that's what they are going to do this time ...

Reading the tea leaves
 

I interpret the Flickr picture as follows:
The VS is off the aircraft because it was in the way for some of the structural repair that will occur. The aft scaffolding defines the area that will be receiving significant structural repair along the crown of the fuselage.

Next, They will build a tent over the scaffolding that spans the aft fuselage.

Watch the forward scaffolding and the lower deck of the aft scaffolding for action. That will be the outflow of internal components as the strip out commences. Start your repair stop watch then. What you see now is facilitation.

The total operation is likely phased so that the expensive repair crew spends minimum time on site.

All you sidewalk superintendents pull up a seat.:}

I expect them to erect a tent over the whole thing so all the sidewalk superintendents will have to guess what's happening inside

Assuming of course the fire did not melt/burn the aluminium composite frame the panels attach to. How easy is that to replace?

In actual fact, the fire may have been propagated on the A350, as aluminium is a very good heat conductor. Who is to say the fire would not have taken out the whole crown and thus write the thing off?

But, like your suggestion the A350 would be easier to repair, that's idle speculation :ok:

Agreed.

Most of the grousing comes from those who are thinking of older types of composite, or those who are basing their reasoning on flawed, outdated or simply incorrect information. Admittedly when the concept was first floated I was thinking of the Comet days and that it would be a leap into the lesser-known material properties of a similar magnitude - but later reading somewhat calmed this opinion when it became clear that the level of modelling and physical testing as well as materials knowledge was much more thorough.

Biggest Airbus A350 XWB carbon fuselage panel manufactured | AVIATIONNEWS.EU

http://www.eads.com/dms/Press-DB/EAD...ag_490_318.jpg

http://www.aviationnews.eu/blog/wp-c...18-400x259.jpg

Very interesting indeed!

some more info: Sources: Damaged Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 787 to Undergo Major Repair in London » Airchive

"once the damaged areas are sanded away" - love it !!

Even better "The incident was sparked on July 12th......"

The workers are probably union and paid by the hour. :bored:

Unions
 

Ozlander:-

"The workers are probably union and paid by the hour"

If that was the case I would say good for them. Why would anyone do otherwise?

The tragedy is that in Britain today (and for the last 30 years) workers are getting poorer year by year and bosses (to make it simple) are getting commensurately richer.

The whole British economy is now run on a Pay To Fly basis.

If you do not think that you can get yourself into the top 10% (today about £160k) then I recommend that you leave Britain. The top 10% are presently in the process of rendering the rest of the population destitute.

Because they can.

£160k puts you well into the top 1% of UK tax payers, and this 1% contribute some 30% of tax revenue.

so yes, they are really ripping off the system :ugh:

That will be highly depending on the price tag that is attached to the repair.
Nobody said it would not be possible to repair composites. The remaining question is whether it is economic to do so.
And this event, linked to an incident and an investigation, is probably not representative for the time it requires to do such a repair.
So there will be more noise in the future

This has been settled long time ago.
Every repair is different but airlines are interested in repairs that happen most often - bends and nicks caused by service vehicles at airports. This is where they loose a lot of $$ every year. The repair techniques developed for such repairs in the composite world are multiple time faster than with the aluminium body and some small damages that require repairs on aluminium aircraft will require no repair at all on a 787.

olasek

As I'm sure your aware this "incident " hardly comes into said " bends and nicks" category.

So. Does anyone have some fresh pictures of what is going on?

Have they started stripping out the interior?

You don't have to see into the tent to make an educated guess as to what is going on inside. Just observe the flow of material in and out.

No, it doesn't but you clearly missed the thrust of my argument. I was talking about aircraft skin repair in general, those that produce largest losses for airlines. Also, there are many aluminium repairs that are no longer economical.

olasek

Care to elaborate, and by the way, how do you know this is correct?