Aer Lingus A-330 aileron castings
 

Received some photos of broken A-330 aileron actuator castings, apparently removed from Aer Lingus aircraft at AA facility at ORD recently.

Nothing further heard or seen on this - anyone else?

REK

I found this
"I've also heard that A330-300 EI-ORD experienced turbulence on the descent into Chicago as EI125 on 11 May, possibly resulting in damage to the spoilers. This aircraft has not been monitored since that date, so it may also be temporarily out of action. Anyone know more?"

"Does anybody have any more details on EI-ORD?

It seems to be out of action at the moment with no movements since that flight on the 11th of May. The return flight was also cancelled that night.

Looking at the logs, they must have hit some pretty heavy turbulence with strong t-storm activity and cumulonimbus build up at the time of the descent and approach. They also did one of two circuits prior to landing, over central South western Michigan and again directly over the lake...

At around 6,000 feet, the airspeed also seems to have briefly dropped as low as 119 KTS, probably indicating a moment of significant turbulence. There were also, however, sharp fluctuations in speed at 20,000 Feet..

EI Premier"

Thanks, Tubby - I'll see if I can post the photos somehow - huge castings totally broken off at one end.

Ron

REKoyich, can you post the pics when you get a chance ?

where are you getting the word castings? it was the inner and outer attachment brackets of an aileron servo control that cracked. Aircraft back in service not long after.

Hi, Bearcat - the actuator brackets appear to be castings of some sort - eyeballing them.

I'll put the photos up on a web page somewhere - this forum doesn't seem to allow photos inside a message.

Ron

Photos
 

Here are the photos of the actuator brackets said to be from Aer Lingus A-330 that declared and emergency going into ORD - perhaps milled from billets of metal - rather than cast - but fractures none-the-less (photos from a friend in the US)

Still no date on the event.

http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j1...330/A330-1.jpg
http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j1...330/A330-2.jpg
http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j1...330/A330-3.jpg
http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j1...330/A330-4.jpg

It could be those brackets were indeed cast as milling would have been a comparatively more expensive fabrication process. Cast items generally do require some small amount of milling.

As the hardness of the metal/alloy goes up, so does milling cost. It's an engineering decision based on design loads and the composition of the item I suppose.

These appear to be some sort of light alloy.

Yes, VAPilot, and however they were made, their usefulness as attach points for the aileron actuators was seriously compromised. They are said to have supported an actuator at the outer end of the inner aileron on the right wing.

NDT on the fittings from the other wing is said to have found cracks in those two, as well.

So: is this a one-off, or is their a problem fleet wide? And if it's fleet wide, does that fleet include the A-340s?

The note included with the photos said the problem was not even noticed until the plane was flying more slowly - maybe the inner ailerons are not active until slower speeds.

Hi vapilot2004...
quote
"It's an engineering decision based on design loads and the composition of the item I suppose.
These appear to be some sort of light alloy."
unquote

My response all along has been and remains...
"So does the rest of the aircraft,
and along with many other design decisions, is the reason I won't fly in any airbus!"

You know..."If it ain't....."

nuf said

Cheers...FD...:)

I'm puzzled:confused:

What is the purpose of posting these pictures. The fracture surface tells the story which is obviously known to the designer.

I presume that the problem is being addressed. Typically you have lots of margin against overload and inspect for fatigue which may be the result of operating factors. If you don't inspect and replace often enough then one bracket fractures resulting in overloading of its mate. System redundancy after that takes you home. Not unique to the manufacturer or am I missing something?

G'day, Lomapaseo - I thought the purpose would be clear - someone asked if I'd post them. And I did.

I had done some Googling after receiving the photos - trying to learn more - didn't find anything, so asked here.

Cheers - Ron

Aeroplanes: If you bend them hard enough (or often enough), they break.:eek:

Just because something makes a good photo, it doesn't make it any more dangerous. Actually, I'll revise that. If something fails and it makes a good photo, it is less dangerous than something that fails that nobody notices...

You've got that right, SomeGuy! Like standing on the ground wishing you were up there, rather than being up there, wishing you were on the ground.

Two quick questions if I may;

1) How many of these components are on each side of the aircraft?
2) What would have been the likely impact on aircraft control following such a break/failure?

Cheers

JAS

Would somebody be able to post a picture of a complete aileron casting ?

My understanding is that a SB has already been issued for an inspection for cracks on these fittings.
The a/c if as reported is one of the oldest A330 flying, line number 059 delivered in March 1997.
I have been told however the SB is a one off inspection and not a repeat inspection.
In answer to the question on what would be the impact, l can not guess at that, but the authorities did not seem too worried, as it is not an AD.

It's not a casting. It's machined from a forged billet. Discoloured fracture surface on one side suggests their might have been a fatigue crack propagating. Still looks like an overload failure.

Hello, is it me or are people casually taking the fracture of primary flight control actuators attachments due to turbulence a bit lightly? Yes they had spoilers too but apparently from what I have read this crew had some hairy moments at low speed. Are we looking at a possible cause of the loss of the AF A330 over the South Atlantic? It too was in heavy turbulence - did it have all its aileron actuator brackets fracture? Forgings, casting, who cares, its what the designer used but it evidently isn't strong enough. Primary flight control structural components should not fail!!!

If this is the spoiler servo attacment bracket that has failed, then I would suggest there might be nothing preventing the spoilers from floating 'up'. the result would vary somewhat from type to type, but would likely present a significant loss of performance, through degraded L/D, and some lateral control assymetry.