Singapore A380
 

BBC online
Grounding is a fleet wide term used when a serious and unresolved defect is suspected.
This looks like a defective component change; the sort of thing which happens frequently and routinely.

Faulty fuel pumps; Rolls Royce Trents: hmmm:uhoh:

The A380 is the first major aircraft launch I can remember so i'm looking for the "more experienced" of you all to help me out here. Does every aircraft have small teething problems like this from the outset? Is the A380 being overly reported due to the British connection and the media spotlight it has been under since day 1?

Yes, even new aircraft of an established type will generally have a few "snags" after delivery.

I would say so, but I believe this is the second time in 2 weeks that they have had a similar problem on 2 different airframes so maybe the story has some merit (and indeed I am interested).

However the term "grounded" is a bit of a sensationalism when really the aircraft is just "tech" or in laymans terms awaiting a fix/new part/repair. Technical delays happen day in day out all over the world and is not at all uncommon on any fleet of aircraft.

New aircraft can prove, once exploited commercially, to fall short of the manufacturer's promises (see MD-11 for quite short) or perform slightly better. This seems to be the case of the A380, at least from what SIA tells us. All new aircrafts also have snags that are addressed during the first months of exploitation. As far as the 777 is concerned, United airlines for instance identified more than 100 snags that required Boeing attention (http://books.google.ch/books?id=CILN...hl=de#PPA92,M1). I am sure this also applies to the A380.But as far as this particular case is concerned, that does not look like a snag to me. Rather the failure of one of the many part making up the plane that requires replacement, something that happens day in day out on all types of airframe, whether they are old or new. Got delayed some 8 hours on a KLM 747-400 for this only a few months ago - it didnt make the news.

To Selco:

Are you suggesting there's a negative interaction between Trent 900s and an Aircraft fuel pump ?

Hello sekant

Good points well made - I've been a Boeing guy for 30 years, but I do hope the 380 can be left to get on with earning some money without every glitch being reported.

Hope you don't mind but there's no need to pluralise "aircraft" - if you want to you could use "aeroplanes" (or "airplanes" if speaking American....) :ok:

As Sekant says the A380 has performed better than SIA/Airbus expected, it would seem with regards to fuel efficiency. I also read an article where SIA's senior vice president engineering stated:
The media will always make a big deal out of things like this, it'll be exactly the same when the 787 and A350 enter service

What point are you trying to make Seloco?
 

Just idly musing on why the Beeb might be featuring an item that on the face of it, as Basil posted, "looks like a defective component change; the sort of thing which happens frequently and routinely."

That's all....

^^^ I suspect it's something to do with 24 hour news channels and the interweb thingy, both of which require constant feeding and if there is nothing solid, then a good dose of speculation will suffice.

What's it got to do with the 'beeb' anyway?

They're just trying to fill a 30 minute slot, were a US president having 'encounters' with Monica in his presidential office then an oversized aircraft with a tech problem in far off Singapore wouldn't even get a mention!

Caste your minds back to the early 70's when the 747 was introduced. The engine cowls used to oval and the fans used to rub on the casings. Solved if I remember by using abrasive material on the cowls to sand away the fans.
I hope I'm not "misspeaking" on this but like Clinton my memory is playing up:D So correct me if I am wrong.

I was in Singapore on Monday evening and took the A380 to London. The Sydney flight was delayed, but the passengers did board the A380 and not smaller aircraft. So article incorrect on that "fact" as well as the misleading use of the term "grounded"

close, but wrong in a couple of areas

yes they (the engine cases) ovalized after bending a bit between the front and rear mounts. The problem was solved by tieing the front and back of the engine together with a "Y" yoke to keep it from bending under thrust loads.

Your idea of abrasive material on the cowls to sand away the fan blades is close but reversed.

If you manage to sand away the fan blades to just fit at high speed, then when you operate at lower speeds you are sure to have way too much clearance with the case and lose a lot of power. Instead you use an abradeable not abrasive filler in the fan case that wears a slight trough for the blades to run in at high speed without wearing the blades. But this was always present on the B747 engines since day one starting in 1969.

just a note
 

Hi all,

I read somewhere recently that the A380 has been the most successfull civil airline jet launch to date: 178 days of service till the first glitch, a problem with a switch in door # 8's slide which "grounded" the bird for a whopping 18 MINUTES in Sydney, just the time it took to replace it ....

With the amount of Money, equipment, and people Airbus threw into launching the A380 Mega whale I'm not surprised it was damn near a perfect introduction.

Just cast your eyes back to Flight International on the subject of Airbus 'helping' SQ introduce it onto the SYD run. Staggering level of effort put in.

With the amount of Money, equipment, and people Airbus threw in ...
 

Oh golly gosh! What an evil company they must be to provide excellent after sales support. What is it with you guys?

Phileas Fogg:

It'll drop out of the news like a stone today, given the T5 fiasco. Much more fun bashing BAA.

ETOPS

Surely a little exageration there! Manx Airlines never had Boeings and you must have left Manx about 22 years ago to join Big Airways!

Yeah, well for half a year there was only one airplane flying. THAT is a record too! Most other types wracked up that kind of flight time in about the first couple of weeks because so many more of the jets were flying at the same time.

Infact, they could park the the jet, never try and fly it, and proclaim in the most reliable aircraft ever!

Cheers
Wino