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A Boeing engineer said Monday that extensive testing showed “no” evidence of fatigue stress in the composite materials that make up its 787 plane, two days before a whistleblower is due to testify before the US Congress over which he described as “catastrophic”. safety risks” in its manufacture.
Steve Chisolm, Boeing’s chief engineer of mechanical and structural engineering, told reporters that the carbon fiber composites used to build the plane successfully underwent strength tests that far exceed normal operating conditions. operation of a commercial airliner.
“The 787 averages about 600 flights a year,” he said at an event at the company’s South Carolina factory that builds the 787. “We’ve done 165,000 flights a year “, did he declare. [flight] cycles. . . There were no signs of fatigue in the composites.
Boeing is trying to reassure airlines and the flying public following allegations last week from a longtime engineer at the manufacturer that it was taking “shortcuts” in building the widebody that could cause it to break. The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration is investigating his allegations.
The engineer, Sam Salehpour, also said Boeing retaliated against him when he raised concerns by moving him to the 777 program, where he said there were separate problems with fuselage sections misaligned.
Salehpour will speak Wednesday at a hearing held by the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. Separately, the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee will hear testimony the same day from three aviation experts who served on the panel that criticized Boeing’s safety culture.
Last week, the company called Salehpour’s claims about the structural integrity of the 787 “inaccurate.” The issues he raised “were the subject of a rigorous technical review under the supervision of the FAA ” Boeing said, and the company estimated that the plane could fly safely for decades.
Retaliation, he adds, is “strictly prohibited.”
Boeing is facing scrutiny from regulators and the U.S. Department of Justice after a door panel exploded mid-flight on a 737 Max in January. A preliminary report from the National Transportation Safety Board found that four bolts intended to secure the door to the fuselage were missing.
An FAA audit found “several instances” in which the company allegedly failed to comply with manufacturing quality control requirements. The regulator limited the number of 737 Max planes Boeing can build per month to 38 and gave the company until the end of May to submit a quality improvement plan.
Salehpour’s criticism stems from deficiencies Boeing discovered in the 787 four years ago at the joints between fuselage sections. Boeing had filled the gaps with improperly sized pieces of material, called shims, and the company halted 787 deliveries for the better part of two years as it worked to correct the problem. The FAA has authorized the aircraft manufacturer to resume deliveries in August 2022.
But the aerospace engineer said the company used too much force when assembling the fuselage sections, tightening them too tightly and obscuring them when a shim was needed. This could cause sections to move against each other, leading to fatigue that could “ultimately cause premature fatigue failure without any warning,” Salehpour said in a Jan. 19 letter to FAA chief Michael Whitaker. .
