Airbus A320 Fuselage Panels

Airbus A320 fuselage panel problems, Thunderbird F-16C crash, ATC prime integrator, hand flying, Boeing and Spirit AeroSystems, Southwest Airlines meltdown fine, solar flares and A320 groundings, airline pay-for-delay compensation, and charging air travelers without REAL ID. Aviation News Airbus prepares A320 inspections as fuselage flaw hits deliveries Airbus engineers are inspecting 628 A320 family exterior fuselage panels for thickness defects. The skin panels have thickness deviations beyond Airbus’s design tolerances. The panels were manufactured by a Spanish supplier Sofitec Aero and do not represent a flight?safety risk at this time. Panels on the upper forward fuselage are the main concern, with deviations having also been found in some rear?fuselage sections. The affected panels are not serialized, so Airbus must inspect the entire batch of potentially impacted airframes rather than trace specific parts. A320 Family final assembly line in Toulouse. Courtesy Airbus. Sofitec Aero is an aerostructures company that designs, manufactures, and assembles metallic and composite aircraft structures for major OEMs, including Airbus, Boeing, Embraer, Bombardier, and several Tier?1 suppliers such as Spirit AeroSystems and Stelia. It is a privately held firm, founded in 1999. Thunderbirds F-16C Fighting Falcon Crashes in California The