Wing cracks on Airbus result of design mix

The cracked wings of the Airbus A380 double-decker airliner are the result of new technologies mixed with insufficient design controls that are now causing spiralling repair costs, chief executive officer Tom Enders said. "This is something that wasn't on our radar screen," Enders said of the period ten years ago when aircraft designers sought to make A380 wings lighter by mixing carbon fibre and metal. "We thought we understood the properties of the materials and the interface between carbon fibre and metal and found out the wrong way we didn't know everything." The cracks have forced Airbus to take more than a quarter of a billion euros repair charges, and the company said this month that fixing its flagship airliner will occupy Airbus for years to come. Airbus is reviewing its delivery schedule for this year, and said that handing over 30 of the world's largest passenger jet this year will be a challenge. While taking risks with new materials and programmes is a requirement in the airliner business, Airbus didn't have the necessary controls to anticipate potential missteps, Enders told journalists yesterday at a briefing in Toulouse in south-western France, where Airbus is based. European Aeronautic, Defence and Space Co, the parent of Airbus, said last week that charges in 2012 alone for a permanent fix for existing A380 wings would total ¤260 million (Dh1.19 billion), and that Airbus will take further charges in future years as it assumes the costs of repairing A380 wingsets. Airbus has traced the cause of the cracks to the choice of a less flexible aluminium alloy used to make the wing brackets, as well as the way in which fasteners are put through holes, and the stresses involved in fitting portions of the wing together. A short-term fix that takes about five days to implement has been applied to about a third of the 74 A380s in service today. That solution will be applied to other operating A380s as the number of landings and take-offs reaches a threshold mandated by regulators that requires the fix. Airbus has worked out a re-design of the wing that would eliminate future cracks and the company is working with the European Aviation Safety Agency to gain approval. The new design wouldn't work its way into wing structures being built in Broughton, Wales, until mid 2013, meaning the first A380s to come off the final assembly line in Toulouse with the improved wing would be early 2014, said Tom Williams, the head of programmes at Airbus. "I'm quite sure the A380 will survive this, as other aircraft programmes have in the past, but it costs the company dearly in money, and I'm afraid also in reputation," Enders said. Airbus will struggle to meet a revised schedule to put its A350 wide-body model into service in the first half of 2014, the head of the programme said. "It's tight but it remains feasible," Didier Evrard, the executive vice president at Airbus, told journalists yesterday at a press briefing in Toulouse, France, where the planemaker is based. "We'll have further challenges." Airbus pushed back planned entry into service of the A350 aircraft by as much as six months in November 2011, to the first half of 2014, as some parts arrived late. Evrard said entry into service would likely be in the latter part of that period, assuming Airbus is able to meet its commitments to airline customers.