I was watching a documentary on Discovery Channel today called Decoding Distaster - Planes.
It was basically about composite materials and how they go in an airplane. They referred to a few accidents with A300/A310's with composite materials that failed during flight.
It did get me thinking how structurally sound the 787 would be. After having watched it, from what i can tell, one needs pretty decent ultrasound equipment to tell if the fuselage is damaged or not (even under a microscope, things dont show up). It also said that the FAA (when they made the doco) had left it upto individual airlines to purchase/use such equipment.
After seeing it, it doesn't leave me with a lot of hope that the 787 will be a strucutrally sound airliner. All these little things that could go wrong with the fuselage make me uneasy.
While I am sure Boeing would NEVER build a strucutrally un-sound airliner, I am of the belief that not all airlines will use the best maintenance procedures, and i doubt many will considering ultrasound equipment is likely required to see small stress fractures.(seriously, how much would it cost, and how long would it take to examine a whole plane!). On the doco, they hit a piece of Carbon Fibre with a hammer, and ultrasounded it, to come up with TINY bits of damaged areas.
I don't know...perhaps others thoughts on this? Perhaps im a crazy old cook (at the ripe old age of 17
), nevertheless, its slightly concerning.