The Insane Engineering of the 787


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Credits:
Writer/Narrator: Brian McManus
Co-Writer: Sophia Mayet
Editor: Dylan Hennessy
Animator: Mike Ridolfi
Sound: Graham Haerther

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[10] This reference provides “ultimate elongation at failure”, but carbon fibre doesn’t really have a plastic zone, the fibres just break.
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19 COMMENTS

  1. Commercial airliners are always my favorite jets. So cool! and self-contained. No start-carts here.. the have an APU!

    No need for extra add-ons.. they are composties! the sings can bend almost as much as a frikin bird!

  2. Depends on the type of aluminum!

    What you failed to mention!

    If an aluminum fuselage panel is fatigued and needs to be replaced; yo just drill out the rivets and replace the panel!

    Carbon fiber; once a stress fracture occurs, becomes fatigued or compromised, IT CANNOT be patched or fixed! Meaning the entire fuselage needs to be replaced!

    Transcend the bullshit!

  3. Certainly not the smartest contribution. By the time of publishing this video the author should have been aware, that the IML (inner mold layer) technology allowed to some of the most complex composite parts, but application of knowledge gained in the fighter technology isn't suited well for airliner production since it doesn't allow for an exact outer layer shape due to the raisin squeezed out of the composite. All the production infrastructure like autoclaves have to be way larger than building the fuselage and other structures based on panels mounted together to fuselage segments. The postprocessing of the composite parts is killing Boeing's earnings on the 787.
    The 787 is a typical example of engineering narcissism, many most innovative, excellent engineering solutions, way too expensive in the production to earn anything. The whole 787 project with all its issues turned into a bottomless money pit without foreseeable end in the near future. Given Boeing's current cash flow issues they would be best of completing the sold 787s and not take in any further orders. A company supposes to make some earnings on the products sold to survive.

    Boeing's suboptimal technology for composite fuselages is also the reason for sticking with a conventional legacy alloy fuselage for the 777X. It would have been way, way, way to expensive to build a composite fuselage for the 777X based on the 787 technology. The autoclaves to temper the fuse-segments alone had to be monstrous, and Boeing didn't have the time nor the money to develop a similar design concept like Airbus used on the A350.

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