http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-23707519

It's getting farcical!

 

It's a shame that such an established manufacturer hasn't got this one right.

Still, it's good for the Airbus.

 

One can only say that this one must have been a "friday" design job!

Les

 

That'll "buff out"! ;-)

 

Report says it's damaged wiring, nothing to do with the plane's design this time.

 

It seems to be an installation problem where wires have been crushed during installation of the units at the Boeing factory.

 

Not sure if that makes it better or worse!

Dodgy design, AND dodgy wiring!

 

I've extracted a paragraph from a Bloomberg report...


"On Aug. 14, Tokyo-based ANA Holdings discovered wiring defects in the fire-suppression system on three Dreamliners. The fault, which would have triggered the wrong extinguisher in case of a fire on one of the engines, was fixed by replacing parts on two 787s, with the third to be repaired by the end of the day, the airline said."

That is just unthinkable, you have a fire on one of the 2 engines and the fire extinguishers operate on the wrong engine, resulting in no engines!!!

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kegworth_air_disaster
Not the same by any stretch of the imagination, but same result.

 

That was very sad, luckily there wasn't a lot of traffic on the motorway.

 

I have to say that does not make me feel any better about the problems.

Faults due to errors in building the aircraft at the factory makes you wonder what is likely to come next!

Les

 

Didn't stop you flying the Vulcans though? Mixture of pilot error and various technical issues/failures destroyed a fair few of them.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avro_Vu..._and_incidents

Can't remember what other types you've said that you've flown in the past, but I suspect the figures will be similiary poor. The Jaguar was the worst AFAIK.

Probably safer in a Dreamliner

 

I do however remember a case where the wiring loom was designed to be run in such a way that when the fuselage inner wall was drilled to instal some original equipment the loom was damaged by the drill. The fault showed up later and inconveniently.

Les

 

I have not listed the other types and marks I have flown but it is at least some 29 of them.

You have to remember that we were undertaking military operational flying which is in a different league altogether from civilian passenger flying. We did however operate the VC10 completely to civilian rules and regulations as well as a few of our own added on.

The Vulcan was operated in a military fashion as a nuclear attack machine as well as conventional weapons for some twenty eight years. It flew originally at high level until it was forced down to low level by the defences it had to cope with. Do you honestly think it was likely to fly for that long and at such an intensity without experiencing emergencies due to various failures from time to time. We spent hours either in the flight simulator or in the air practising how to deal with any emergency which might occur. That went also for all the other aircraft I flew of course. We expected that sooner or later something would go wrong and we were ready in case it did. Of course we all had problems at times, military flying is by its nature a lot more intense than passenger flying and was likely to lead to more difficult scenarios to cope with. All part of the job of course. I have to say that the Vulcan was essentially a remarkably reliable machine
despite what was required of it.

Some of the others I flew were likely to be a much greater problem when things went wrong however. You often had to work very hard to get away with it. There were often times when you "fell" out of the machine after some excitement or other thinking to yourself that you had really earned your flying pay for that day!

Operational military flying is of course a very different style and requires a different attitude from the crew. The manner in which it is done is nowhere near the same as civilian flying. That does not mean any of us would feel too happy about using something like that Dreamliner which has shown some pretty unfortunate occurrences so far. I really hope they manage to stop the batteries from catching fire!

Les

 

I thought I'd revisit this thread as I will be getting on a UA B-787/8 on Sunday to IAH, probably not the wisest thing to do

Has anyone flown on one yet if so what was the experience like, speaking to a colleague who's flown on one he only mentioned the air quality seemed better and the cabin pressurisation felt different to the norm ?!?

I guess I can make my own judgement on Sunday, tbh I'm a little nervous and concentrating more on the appeal of having a Wendy Burger at IAH before getting my connection to GIG

 

You're flying to Rio, via Houston!?

 

Yep' - I came back on from florida last year (plane was only a week old - well a week in service with Thomson), it was an overnight flight, seats were good (for a package holiday plane), and I have to say the different lighting, cabin pressure and air quality must have been far better - as we all slept (apart from the annoying kid 2 rows back - who did actaually fall asleep about 30 minutes before we landed !!), but for me - the usual nasty jet lag was far reduced.,
As for the safety thing, I wouldnt worry, you're far more likely to be injured in your Scooby on Britains roads.

 

i'm off to Florida in August, then Mexico in October, both times will be flying on a dreamliner, im looking forward to it

 

Yep