Colin W Kingsbury wrote:

"Morgans" wrote in message
...

Did anyone catch this on avflash?


SNIP

A tap test? Is this is the best they can do to find possible flaws on
multimillion dollar aircraft, carrying thousands of people around? Surely
there is a better way!


I have a couple of feelings on the issue. First, the A300/310 is hardly new,
with plenty of airframes flying for 10-20 years with all kinds of operators,
and this is the first we see of it. So my initial instinct is to think that
there is something beyond design at work here. I'm not a materials engineer
but it seems that the "composites are new and we don't fully understand
them" argument is growing a little long in the tooth. There are Long-EZs
that have been flying for quite some time and those were amateur-built. But
what the heck do I know?

True, but we don't have 50 years of experience with composites in
service. Who knows what their deterioration/age related failure modes
may be? Remember, it took a couple of fatal accidents to begin to
understand fatigue and corrosion issues in aluminum...


Matt