A380-800

Pilote de Qantas: l’A380 est indestructible
Publié le 14 février 2011 par François Duclos dans Actualité, Insolite, Technologie - 0 commentaire

Le commandant de bord qui pilotait l’Airbus A380 de Qantas Airways quand un réacteur a explosé peu après son décollage de Singapour, en novembre 2010, n’a qu’un mot pour décrire le super jumbo: indestructible.

Le capitaine Richard de Crespigny, dans sa première interview à la télévision, a raconté son expérience à la chaine Channel Nine, qualifiant de « brillantes » les performances de l’appareil malgré les dommages causés par l’explosion du réacteur Rolls Royce Trent 900. Selon lui, la partie gauche de l’avion était « électriquement morte », la moitié des systèmes hydrauliques étaient touchés, les freins sous les ailes fonctionnaient à 30% et deux autres réacteurs étaient affectés par l’explosion.

« L’aile semblait avoir été bombardée, l’appareil avait des dégâts phénoménaux dans ses systèmes », ajoute Crespigny, et pourtant « il s’est comporté brillamment – il est indestructible ». Avant de poser l’A380 sans dommage pour ses 489 passagers, il a reçu l’aide de quatre pilotes, les deux dans le cockpit plus deux autres de la compagnie aérienne australienne qui étaient à bord pour des contrôles de routine. Avec leurs 140 années d’expérience combinées, ils ont étudié pendant presque deux heures la situation avant de décider de poser l’avion « comme un planeur », un exercice que le pilote n’avait pas pratiqué depuis son passage dans l’armée de l’air.

Interrogé sur l’emploi du terme indestructible, qui avait été utilisé pour le Titanic, Crespigny a simplement répondu: « le Titanic a coulé, lui ».

http://www.air-journal.fr/2011-02-14-pilote-de-qantas-la380-est-indestructible-525379.html

Emirates expects A380 despatch maturity in mid-2012
By Brendan Sobie

Emirates' despatch reliability on the Airbus A380 remains below expectations but the carrier is confident all the remaining kinks will be worked out by mid-2012, says Emirates president Tim Clark.

Clark says the reliability figure for its A380 fleet is running at 97%. "It should be higher. Those last remaining percentage points are those niggly little things," he adds.

Clark gave his view after an A380 belonging to Singapore Airlines (SIA) was stranded in Zurich for three days with a rudder control fault, less than a week after an in-flight smoke incident on an SIA sister ship.

"It's a huge airplane, an extremely complex airplane, a new airplane and therefore will have all sorts of bugs the designers and engineers wouldn't have foreseen," Clark says, adding that the A380 is a "very good" aircraft.

"I think all the launch customers in the first three or four years will face things like water leakage you probably have until the middle of next year for real maturity," he says.

SIA has defended the reliability of the A380, despite its recent problems.

"The A380 has had one of the smoothest introductions to our fleet compared to our previous experience of entry into service of new aircraft," says the carrier.

"Technical issues do crop up from time to time, which is not unexpected even of aircraft types that have been in service for decades.

"It has to be noted that the A380 is the world's first superjumbo aircraft, as well as the first aircraft with a clean sheet design in a long while, so any operational disruptions that occur will naturally garner more attention."

Airbus has delivered 43 A380s to five operators. Emirates remains the largest with 15, with 75 more on order, while SIA has 11.

"In the greater scheme of things, the aircraft's dispatch reliability is comparable to any aircraft currently in service. We continue to work with Airbus on ways to improve the operational performance of the A380," SIA adds.

In-flight engine failure on a Qantas A380 last November prompted the carrier to ground its fleet. Rolls-Royce, manufacturer of the Trent 900 powerplant, has booked a charge of £56 million ($90 million) to cover service, support and uncontracted settlement.

Additional reporting by Ghim-Lay Yeo

http://www.flightglobal.com/articles/2011/02/15/353040/emirates-expects-a380-despatch-maturity-in-mid-2012.html

Qantas's damaged A380 to return to service this year
By Will Horton

The Qantas Airbus A380 aircraft damaged last November during an uncontained Rolls-Royce Trent 900 engine failure will return to service this year.

"We'll be in the air by the end of the year with that aircraft," says Qantas CEO Alan Joyce. He cautions, however, that "it could take as long as September until it is fully repaired."

The aircraft has been parked at Singapore's Changi airport since the November incident.

Joyce says the cost to repair VH-OQA, the first A380 delivered to Qantas, will exceed A$100m (US$99.8m). Insurance and contractual agreements with Rolls-Royce will cover the repairs.

Qantas says A380 disruptions had a $55m cost impact in the first half of its financial year ended 31 December. The carrier estimates a further $25m impact in the second half of the year.

The November incident took out one of the aircraft's two hydraulic systems and extensively damaged the port wing. The aircraft landed safely, and the passengers and crew suffered no injuries.

The A380 fleet was grounded for three weeks after the incident.

Although services to Singapore and London resumed in late November, services to Los Angeles did not resume until last month.

Qantas has taken an injunction against Rolls-Royce in Australia, but chief financial officer Gareth Evans says Qantas prefers to reach a commercial settlement. "We'll take the time necessary to do that," he says.

http://www.flightglobal.com/articles/2011/02/17/353293/qantass-damaged-a380-to-return-to-service-this-year.html

Korean Air is intending to deploy the aircraft on services from Seoul to Tokyo Narita in June,

Asiana selects Rolls-Royce Trent 900 to power its A380s

South Korea's Asiana Airlines has selected the Rolls-Royce Trent 900 engine to power its six recently-ordered Airbus A380s.

The agreement includes a TotalCare long-term maintenance contract.

Asiana will take delivery of the aircraft between 2014 and 2017.

The carrier also has 30 Airbus A350 XWBs on order, for which the Rolls-Royce Trent XWB is the only engine. Its current long-haul fleet is fitted mainly with General Electric and Pratt & Whitney powerplants.

http://www.flightglobal.com/articles/2011/03/16/354411/asiana-selects-rolls-royce-trent-900-to-power-its-a380s.html

The configuration of China Southern's A380 has reportedly been leaked on Sina Weibo, China's equivalent of Twitter. A seating diagram (below) shows the carrier will operate its A380 with 8 first class seats, 70 in business, and 428 in economy for a total of 506.

Of the eight carriers whose seating plans we know (see above chart), the average number of seats is 487, so China Southern's runs on the slightly more cramped side.

For details on the cabin, both first class and business class will be a in 1-2-1 configuration with first on the lower deck and business on the upper deck. Economy will primarily be located on the lower deck in a standard 3-4-3 configuration save for 9/10 rows (the last row only has the 4 middle block of seats) in the rear of the upper deck in a 2-4-2 configuration, like on Singapore Airlines.

China Southern's first A380 flew on 3 March from Toulouse to Hamburg. As of last year's Zhuhai airshow, the aircraft is due to enter service in the middle of this year.

For those of you who do not read Mandarin and are looking to translate the original mini-blog entry, my online translator of choice tells me the configuration is 8 "bold heads", 70 "prime", and 428 "economics".

There are also, reportedly, 19 lavatories as well as 14 galleys fitting 87 meal carts.

Airbus is confident it will meet its delivery forecast of some 25 A380s this year despite the Japanese earthquake which has further complicated the juggling process aimed at ensuring enough Rolls-Royce Trent 900 engines are available.
Turbine parts for the Trent 900 for the A380 - as well as the Trent 700 and other aero engines - are produced at Japanese corporation IHI's Soma plant.
Soma is just 40km north of the Fukushima nuclear power station which has been the scene of emergency containment and repair work since the 11 March quake and tsunami.
IHI shut down the main manufacturing facilities after the earthquake and only began partial operations within the least-damaged buildings on 29 March.
"We are now undertaking repairs on the other buildings and will commence operations at each of them as soon as such work has been completed," it says.
Airbus executive vice-president for programmes Tom Williams, speaking to Flightglobal in Toulouse last week, said there were "certainly concerns" over the ability of the plant to restore normal operations.
"That's the one we're going to have to watch carefully," he says, pointing out that power has been intermittent and that a smooth operation depends on making sure the "right people are there at the right time".

© Airbus

Airbus has been forced to rejig the schedule of its A380 deliveries after a Trent 900 in-flight failure, on a Qantas aircraft last year, resulted in demand for replacement powerplants.
In order to meet the demand Airbus has been removing Trent 900s from the production line, and pushing A380 deliveries towards the second half of this year.
But Williams says Rolls-Royce has been working on contingency plans and the airframer is maintaining "at the moment" that its A380 delivery total will be in the "mid-20s" for 2011.
Airbus delivered four A380s over the first quarter of this year: two to Qantas in January, bringing its total to nine, and two to Lufthansa