Fri, Jan 26, 2007
Should Be Ironed Out By 26th Airframe
It appears word Airbus this week had solved a series of
technical glitches with stubborn wiring harnesses on its A380
megajumbo may have been a tad optimistic... as the European
planemaker said Thursday problems had been solved on the first
aircraft only.
Reuters reports Gerhard Puttfarcken, head of Airbus' German
operations, told a German newspaper this week Airbus had solved its
wiring problems with the A380. Numerous news outlets, including ANN, quickly hailed
the news as a long-awaited step in the righr direction for the
beleagured planemaker.
Puttfarcken clarified his comments Thursday, however... stating
Airbus had only solved the wiring problems on the aircraft
scheduled for delivery to launch customer Singapore Airlines later
this year, but work remains on other airframes.
That's good news for Singapore Airlines... but questions remain
for subsequent airframes.
"We are creating the conditions so that in future there will be
one common platform from all the sites," Puttfarcken told a
briefing for French journalists Thursday.
While it's not the major revelation many originally thought, the
news is still a step in the right direction for Airbus as it
attempts to regain credibility for its oft-delayed A380
program.
The wiring issue stemmed from incompatible design specs used by
Airbus' French and German plants -- harnesses made in one plant,
did not line up with the fuselage segments produced by another.
Airbus hopes to have a common design platform in place by the time
the 26th airframe is manufactured.
Which means for the moment, Airbus will have to rework the
problematic wiring harnesses on each airframe.
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