G
Gord
Guest
I do apologise, yes I guess it's the Airbus A380 and the Boeing is the B787 Dreamliner, I don't think you have to worry about the resin though mate, the Airbus A320's entire vertical and horizontal stabiliser sections are made of graphite or carbon Fibre which ever you want to call it and they've been in service for at least 15 - 20yrs now with no accidents or concerns about resin breakdown. We used to make smart arsed remarks about how Aluminium was so much more reliable than composites but I reckon most of us, at least those of us in the airline industry have seen the benefits and the reliability of these components so as far as metal over composites are concerned, well to quote the song, "There's a kind of hush all over the world." Each of these processes have their place. I believe the A380 is actually carbon fibre from just aft of the wings.
The only thing carbon fibre doesn't like is impact damage, that can necessitate a fairly large repair in what appears to be a site of minor damage but which in fact is similar to a bullet hole effect, small on the outside with a fairly large amount of damage further in, other than that, it's stronger than steel for a sh!tload less weight. Such repairs require a lot of prep of the damage area and a fair bit of work doing the layup but then once that's done and the repair vacuum bagged down or placed in an autoclave with the appropriate amount of heat applied, it's a case of put yer feet up and relax while the repair cooks, anywhere from 90 minutes to 3 or 4 hours depending on what the recipe calls for.