The Airbus A380 on show at Paris Air Show for the first time in 2005.
Twenty years on from wowing crowds at Le Bourget for the first time during the flying display in 2005, the Airbus A380 has not reached the heights once hoped for the program.
While the production run has now ended and a viable secondary market for the airframe is yet to be found, the A380 has nevertheless recovered better than many expected following the COVID crisis.
The global in-service fleet of A380s has dropped by 53 aircraft since May 2019, a fall of 22.7%. Yet total flight hours in May according to Aviation Week’s Tracked Aircraft Utilization tool were still 78.4% of May 2019.
However, a big year is coming up for the fleet. The mode age of the remaining in-service A380s is 11 years old, meaning 26 of the type are due for their costly 12-year D checks next year. Of the remaining in-service fleet, 111 airframes—or 73%—are younger than 12 years, which means operators have decisions to make.
British Airways’ A380 fleet is around the heavy check age, and the airline previously committed to continue operating the type, good news for its MRO partner Lufthansa Technik Philippines, which is contracted into 2027. Aviation Week data shows the flag carrier’s A380 fleet is racking up more monthly flight hours this year than in 2019 and outperforming average utilization for the global fleet.
I was a steel maker for over 35 years, and in addition to making air melted steel for the investment castings industry, we also melted under vacuum for the aerospace market as well as the ground based turbine market.
ReplyDeleteI did every job in the place over my time there, from operating all of the machinery involved in the air melt shop from furnaces to ladles to AOD vessels to the continuous casting machine.
I also did every job in the vacuum shop, including running the highest quality production furnace. I was involved in the development of the different alloys we made Rolls-RoyceTrent 900 engine. We basically made all of the metal for the hot parts of the engine of numerous different jet engines.
I remember making one alloy that for an 8,000 pound heat cost over 10 million dollars. Before running that heat, we tore down every valve and rebuilt it, changed every O-ring from the sight ports to the main D-ring that sealed the removable cover to the main tank. We also did maintenance on every pump, from roughing pumps to Roots blowers pumps to the Booster pumps which were specialized pumps filled with oil and using all of these pumping systems, we were able to get our vacuum pressure down to as low as 5 microns.
Our chief metallurgist on the vacuum side was from England, and came up with the special alloy used in the engine called a single X-tal, in the bathtub. It does away with the normal crystalline structure and the fracture points by making the entire part a single crystal. This was done by both the alloy and the method of pouring the parts, using a "pigtail" sort of system which caused the flowing metal to swirl while filling the mold.
We only made metal for casters to pour into their own molds. On the air melt side, we made alloy for Pine Tree Castings, a major supplier to gun companies including Sturm Ruger, whom we also made alloy. Before NAFTA, we ran 7 days a week for months on end, to keep up with the market for golf clubs. At one time we even were the supplier of alloys for over 85% of the medical implant business, like knees and hips.
After NAFTA, the metal we used to send to San Diego went to Mexico and then China took over the market, with us losing 90% of our 17-4 alloy business.
A friend from my hometown who was a lumberman told me that they always knew when manufacturing business was going well, as they were busy making boards for pallets and crates, which went to the large manufacturing base in my city here in Muskegon, MI, a once world class manufacturing city, with the largest gray iron foundry in the world. Now the powers that be have driven out the manufacturing business to focus on tourism. And all of the good paying jobs that went with the manufacturing economy.
Sorry for the rambling comments, I get carried away sometimes.