Life after Paris,- It's been busy.

Three weeks ago the Paris Air Show was drawing to a close after a predictably successful week. On the civil side of the business, the Big Two, Airbus and Boeing were well satisfied with their announcements of more big orders for the two cash cows which allow them to sleep at night whatever else is happening . Take a bow the 737 and A320 series. There were continuing successes too for the 777,787 and A350. The A330 is still pulling in business too, trading purchase price against future efficiencies offerered by its eventual successors. Only the lack an airline order for the A380 new, repeat, anything, will have disappointed Airbus. With over 100 now delivered, the order book for this aircraft really does need to start picking up. When will a US major crack and accept the inevitable and sign up, even if only for small initial quantities for slot constratined airports and routes? When will China be persuaded to add Air China and/or China Eastern to its customer lists, or to top up China Southern's fleet?  Cathay Pacific would be a nice catch too. Declarations of intent from leasing companies don't fit or pay the bill.

 Airbus initially stole the flying show by displaying first BA's and later on its own A380. Then, as predicted first by Airnthere, it capped everything with a flypast by its brand new A350, only a week into its initial flying programme. Without saying anything else this conveyed the message to challengers : "We are here,- now!"  That is powerful and will set Boeing wondering how it can bring forward its 777 development although as current orders and production rates stand, for anyone buying now there isn't much in it for actual delivery dates.

With Paris over, Airbus and Boeing got busy with high profile deliveries. Within days BA's A380 arrived at Heathrow to start working up to its real long haul introduction, now to Los Angeles on 24 September, three weeks ahead of the original plan. Before that it will appear, initially at least, unannounced on scheduled London-Frankfurt services to build flight and cabin crew experience. PR-wise an unspecified 380 is due to do a flypast in the company with the RAF's Red Arrows at the massive military International Air Tattoo at Fairford, UK on Saturday 20th July. If BA's PR team are on the ball there is no question of which aircraft it will turn out to be. It would not be required to join the Red Arrows in the rest of their display. That's a relief.

 Boeing were no slouches either.They are intent on getting their rather late 787 into the hands of as many  different customers and visibly into making money in the air as quickly possible, thereby also saying "We are here,-now!" to anyone whose hands may be wavering towards an A350 contract. With the show over, two were quickly sent to BA to trump the arrival of their A380 by days, while Norwegian and Hainan Airlines both received their first aircraft. Boeing's airline introduction support teams are clearly busy.

Despite the approaching holidays the pace was picking up and things were looking good.

And then..............

First a perfectly serviceable 777 landing in good conditions was written off by Korea's Asiana while landing at San Francisco. The "Who Dunnit? Let it not be us"  US investigation set off at the gallop amidst plenty of speculation, particularly about what may or may not have happened on the flight deck and why. Included in stones rightly upturned will be ones about operating procedures and cultures, primarily Korean ones. What may get less or even no attention is what US ATC proceedures, culture and style may have added to the mix. These tend to be regarded as beyond reproach . To many, especially home based crews, they may familiar enough and fine. There has to be a question though as to whether or not they take full account of visiting foreign crews who may not spend much of their lives flying in and out of US airports and airspace .It can be tough for newcomers especially at the end of a long haul sector. It's very pressured and everything happens very quickly and in a more rushed style than at other places in the world. Quickfire instructions, rapid descents and late turns are often part of the norm. Perhaps this gives an understanding to the buildup towards what happened on this flight.  Arriving at San Francisco from the north with mountains on its eastern side and sea on the western plus traffic on a close parallel and a conflicting crosswind runway is high workload anyway. It is not the same as approaching Heathrow with its very measured verbal interactions and instructions and its long terrain-free orderly approaches and no cross runways to keep an eye on. Other places are high workload and demanding too but there is the opportunity here to look at how the commonplace to local pilots looks and sounds to pilots from different backgrounds and cultures.

Next up,-or down,- Boeing had no sooner breathed a sigh of relief when it quickly became clear that the 777 itself was in the clear than an empty and inactive Ethiopian 787 started smoking on its Heathrow parking stand. That's not something that you see every day. Much of the media and speculation industry went into immediate overdrive as no doubt did, in an entirely different way, the UK's Air Accident Investigation Board.  There was more and very deep breathing of relief the following day when the lithium batteries were exonerated . The investigation continues and can be relied upon to be good, factual and non judgemental. As the Board's initial statement says, its task is to establish the facts. It is not in the business of identifying or apportioning blame. The outcome will be awaited with great interest by the industry, Boeing, the 787 customer airlines and the passengers themselves.

Another potentially most interesting and certainly vital issue lurks here and needs a thorough examination and statement. This is the repairability of carbon fibre structures, especially ones which come in very large sections as per the 787 ,rather than as a collection of panels fastened to a conventional structure(A350). The most common damage will be of the familiar catering truck meets fuselage variety.  These affect relatively small areas in a fairly predictable way. Extensive burning/smouldering and any resultant distortion or other damage is a very different thing. A significant area of the rear fuselage has been affected by the heat, shows scorch marks and what appears to be the outline of a substructure. How much will the heat have affected the strength of the area and its supports. Where will stress distribution patterns run before and after repair? Can a large area be cut out and a new one bonded in and how will the relative strengths of the new area compare to the old ?  Presumably as in any structures a perfect match is required? Some experts in carbon fibre structural repair may be finding that their dreams of a summer holiday are fading fast. Quite apart from aircraft deliveries, it could be a busy August in Seattle.
Here we are then, three weeks on from the heady days Paris and some of the drawing boards are coming out again.