Aviation Week reported that Airbus A380s that “sit idle in severe environmental conditions may be susceptible to wing-spar cracking previously linked to the wing’s age, prompting the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) to adopt broader inspection criteria recommended by the manufacturer.” An airworthiness directive (AD) from last Thursday noted that A380 operators must calculate “factored time on ground” (FTOG) and “conduct inspections based on Airbus’ revised criteria.” The AD builds “on existing inspection criteria for the A380 wing box areas: the top and bottom flanges of the outer rear spar (ORS) between Ribs 33 and 49, the outer inner front spar (OIFS) between Ribs 8 and 14 and the outer front spar (OFS) between Ribs 38 and 49.”
Full Story (Aviation Week)
Tag: A380
Operators Say Airbus A380 Wing Spar Crack Repairs Are Slowing Return to Service
Aviation Week reports behind a paywall, “Operators of older Airbus A380s are finding that cracks in some areas of wing spars are making a return to service a significantly longer process, as inspections and repairs take weeks to complete.”
Full Story (Aviation Week)
Final A380 Makes First Flight
CNN reports that on Wednesday, “the final A380 to be assembled took off from Airbus’ Jean-Luc Lagardere plant, a purpose-built facility at Toulouse-Blagnac Airport in southern France.” The aircraft was destined for “the Airbus manufacturing plant at Hamburg-Finkenwerder Airport in Germany,” where “the cabin will be fitted out and the aircraft painted, Airbus media relations manager Anne Galabert told CNN Travel last year.” The aircraft will be delivered to Emirates upon completion.
Full Story (CNN)
Airbus to Record Most Jet Deliveries In World for Second Straight Year
Reuters reports that Airbus “is set to beat The Boeing Company to be the world’s largest jetmaker for the second year in a row, ending 2020 by resuming deliveries of its A380 superjumbo to Emirates, though its final deliveries are likely to have dropped 35% from 2019 due to the pandemic.” Barring “widespread new travel upheaval, industry sources expect Airbus to deliver 550-560 planes in 2020 after it reached more than 520 this week, with nine days of the year still to go.” Total Airbus “deliveries are expected to fall 35% this year due to the impact on airlines of the pandemic, but Airbus has an insurmountable lead over Boeing, which delivered 118 planes up to the end of November, with the 737 MAX grounded during that period.”
Full Story (Reuters)
A380 Flies for the First Time on 100% SAF
Aviation International News reports that Airbus, “for the first time, has performed an A380 flight powered by 100 percent sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) in one of its Rolls-Royce Trent 900 engines, the company said Monday. A380 test aircraft MSN 1 took off from Blagnac Airport in Toulouse, France, at 8:43 am on Friday, remaining in the air for about three hours” on Friday.
Full Story (Aviation International News)