Reply 13, posted Sat Jun 17 2006 14:13:30 UTC+2 and read 3129 times:

Quoting Zvezda (Thread starter):

The second WhaleJet delay (May to Nov first delivery to SQ) was due largely to the decision to switch from copper to aluminium wiring to reduce OEW. Aluminium is not as good a conductor as copper, so a larger wire gauge must be used, however, aluminium is so much lighter than copper that Airbus are saving more than a tonne.

I just heard a rumor that the reason for the third delay is that Airbus overlooked that the larger gauge wire would need larger holes through all the bulkheads. That`s a very large number of holes that need to be redrilled.

This seems like the sort of thing that someone would have caught right away. Can anyone confirm or deny this?

I find it hard to beleive that this was overlooked completely, however, on the A380 program,weight is running the show I beleive. That being said everything is in the details of design.

wanna change the wiring, you need...

- new wiring provisions i.e.clips

- new routing for wiring beacause of increased size of wiring.

- enlarged system provision passthroughs for wiring, and requried reinforcement

- new connectors (long lead time here)

This isn`t a design change in one location, its everywhere.

Was this change just for the IFE and secondary systems, or the whole electrical system for the aircraft?

airliners.net Jan. 06