Airbus A380 Main Gear Problem
- Thread starter BrettInLJ
- Start date
Minuteman
I HAVE STRONG OPINIONS ABOUT AUTOMOTIVE LIGHTING!
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I'll fly anything if they pay me well enough.
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Aww heck, I don't mean to be a big killjoy... but just remember that quote when you're asked to fly a broken aircraft or in bad conditions. ('course you probably don't have to worry about being paid too much at those kinds of outfits)
I'll fly anything if they pay me well enough.
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Aww heck, I don't mean to be a big killjoy... but just remember that quote when you're asked to fly a broken aircraft or in bad conditions. ('course you probably don't have to worry about being paid too much at those kinds of outfits)
JDMcFly
New Member
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I'll fly anything if they pay me well enough.
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Aww heck, I don't mean to be a big killjoy... but just remember that quote when you're asked to fly a broken aircraft or in bad conditions. ('course you probably don't have to worry about being paid too much at those kinds of outfits)
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That's why I was questioning whether it was a good attitude or not. I wouldn't do anything just because it pays well enough.
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I'll fly anything if they pay me well enough.
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Aww heck, I don't mean to be a big killjoy... but just remember that quote when you're asked to fly a broken aircraft or in bad conditions. ('course you probably don't have to worry about being paid too much at those kinds of outfits)
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That's why I was questioning whether it was a good attitude or not. I wouldn't do anything just because it pays well enough.
flyover
New Member
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Looks like a taxi test to me. They get a LOT worse than that!
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I'll believe seagull, he has the 'voice of experience', me thinks.
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I don't know how it could get a lot worse than that. They are practically dragging the tires off the rims, tearing up asphalt, and it looks in the bottom picture like the gear is bending.
If it is true that they have made the main gear non-steerable then they have f'd up. This could be true as they have reportedly been on a desperate hunt to save weight. But I would have bet $100 that the main gear would be steerable. There simply isn't any way it can't be. And if it isn't, the pictures prove it.
I'll bet another $100 that there are no comparable pictures from, say, a 747 "test taxi" because this simply should not happen.
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Looks like a taxi test to me. They get a LOT worse than that!
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I'll believe seagull, he has the 'voice of experience', me thinks.
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I don't know how it could get a lot worse than that. They are practically dragging the tires off the rims, tearing up asphalt, and it looks in the bottom picture like the gear is bending.
If it is true that they have made the main gear non-steerable then they have f'd up. This could be true as they have reportedly been on a desperate hunt to save weight. But I would have bet $100 that the main gear would be steerable. There simply isn't any way it can't be. And if it isn't, the pictures prove it.
I'll bet another $100 that there are no comparable pictures from, say, a 747 "test taxi" because this simply should not happen.
Then again, don't forget that during a test phase, you also test to failure. Yeah, the wings are able to hold up to the stress specified. But the other side of the equation is that in a worse-case scenario, exactly how far must the stress go to cause failure?
There simply isn't enough information provided about the photos to know in which context they were made. I saw videos of the 777 wings snapping off during stress testing; if you saw only the video without knowing the context in which they were made, you might conclude that there was something unsafe in the wing design and implementation.
There is another rumor going around about A380 gear problems since it flew its 5-minute demonstration at the Paris Air Show with its gear down the entire time. Airbus says the official explanation for this is that it takes an entire minute and half to retract the gear and an entire minute and a half to extend them, meaning it would only have flown in gear-up configuration for only 2 minutes of the demo.
In these photos, it could be a high-speed taxi test combined with a brake test, or something similar. I have seen photos similar to this when I was in the AF of a B-52 that landed without a drag chute and locked up the brakes after landing.
There simply isn't enough information provided about the photos to know in which context they were made. I saw videos of the 777 wings snapping off during stress testing; if you saw only the video without knowing the context in which they were made, you might conclude that there was something unsafe in the wing design and implementation.
There is another rumor going around about A380 gear problems since it flew its 5-minute demonstration at the Paris Air Show with its gear down the entire time. Airbus says the official explanation for this is that it takes an entire minute and half to retract the gear and an entire minute and a half to extend them, meaning it would only have flown in gear-up configuration for only 2 minutes of the demo.
In these photos, it could be a high-speed taxi test combined with a brake test, or something similar. I have seen photos similar to this when I was in the AF of a B-52 that landed without a drag chute and locked up the brakes after landing.
flyover
New Member
Could be testing but not likely they would do these things with a flying prototype.
My comment was if they really have built this thing without steerable main gear like the 747 has, then somebody flunked geometry. This airplane will have to make square turns to get around any airport. They can't possibly think they can drag the outside mains sideways everytime they do that without something, including the taxiway, giving.
But if they have made such a mistake it is consistent with some things I have read about engineering problems and the problems they've had with weight. I'm sure there is an engineer somewhere pleading; "I told them they had to swivel the main gear, they wouldn't listen!"
My comment was if they really have built this thing without steerable main gear like the 747 has, then somebody flunked geometry. This airplane will have to make square turns to get around any airport. They can't possibly think they can drag the outside mains sideways everytime they do that without something, including the taxiway, giving.
But if they have made such a mistake it is consistent with some things I have read about engineering problems and the problems they've had with weight. I'm sure there is an engineer somewhere pleading; "I told them they had to swivel the main gear, they wouldn't listen!"
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Call me crazy, but I thought it you were going to do a stress test to failure of the landing gear, you wouldn't do it with the rest of your only flying prototype attached!!!!
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Ah, but it comes down to "technical risk versus schedule risk." Yeah, it's the only prototype, but if it's something they can repair easily and get flying again, it might be worth taking to keep the overall program on schedule.
It happens all the time. "We'll do this to save schedule (which equals $) even though it might cause that to happen." It's all about risk and just what management is willing to handle.
And, nobody said the test passed...
Call me crazy, but I thought it you were going to do a stress test to failure of the landing gear, you wouldn't do it with the rest of your only flying prototype attached!!!!
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Ah, but it comes down to "technical risk versus schedule risk." Yeah, it's the only prototype, but if it's something they can repair easily and get flying again, it might be worth taking to keep the overall program on schedule.
It happens all the time. "We'll do this to save schedule (which equals $) even though it might cause that to happen." It's all about risk and just what management is willing to handle.
And, nobody said the test passed...
BobDDuck
Island Bus Driver
Talking with a Boeing guy today he comment on the pictures (somebody brought them up). His thought was they were doing a brake failure test. Basicly, you taxi it up to brake application speed and then engage auto braking to MAX. See how far it takes to stop. Auto braking on that setting is actually designed to destroy the tires I guess. As much as I am more a Boeing fan then Airbus I would think there wasn't anything to serious with this test. Looks like the brakes work at least.
seagull
Well-Known Member
It was a test, and the 380 does have steerable body gear, go here for the full story:
http://www.pprune.org/forums/showthread.php?s=1b1e18949fa15bbf7306cfc5bda8338d&threadid=181911
http://www.pprune.org/forums/showthread.php?s=1b1e18949fa15bbf7306cfc5bda8338d&threadid=181911
tonyw
Well-Known Member
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Aww heck, I don't mean to be a big killjoy... but just remember that quote when you're asked to fly a broken aircraft or in bad conditions. ('course you probably don't have to worry about being paid too much at those kinds of outfits)
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Let me clarify. Safety is one thing. I won't fly an unsafe airplane.
I'm talking aesthetics. Who cares if the plane is ugly if the paycheck is good?
Aww heck, I don't mean to be a big killjoy... but just remember that quote when you're asked to fly a broken aircraft or in bad conditions. ('course you probably don't have to worry about being paid too much at those kinds of outfits)
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Let me clarify. Safety is one thing. I won't fly an unsafe airplane.
I'm talking aesthetics. Who cares if the plane is ugly if the paycheck is good?
flyover
New Member
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I'm just guessing, but this guy wasn't a test pilot right?
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Uh no... actually he was the design manager for the Apache product line.
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I'm not a test pilot either, but I was pretty sure the max braking test didn't involve sliding sideways!
Darn, it would have been so much more fun if they had neglected to install steerable main gear, but it was too crazy to be true, even for a European consortium. Maybe this thing will fly.
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I'm just guessing, but this guy wasn't a test pilot right?
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Uh no... actually he was the design manager for the Apache product line.
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I'm not a test pilot either, but I was pretty sure the max braking test didn't involve sliding sideways!
Darn, it would have been so much more fun if they had neglected to install steerable main gear, but it was too crazy to be true, even for a European consortium. Maybe this thing will fly.