Over-stressing On 787 Occurances

From time to time something happens to the 787. For that matter from time something happens to every other Airplane model in existence. It may be metal fatigue or an anomaly found on its fight systems such as the A-330 found in a dicey situation flying over the Atlantic when it was lost coming out of Brazil to Paris. You may know it as Air France flight #442. Either way it was a disaster. Somehow every time a 787 gets a nick in the bonnet, it headlines and the doom and gloom come out to play with the 787.

Recently it was a hail storm on a 787: From Daily Mail

American Airlines' new Dreamliner jet was pummeled by hail, 'dropped hundreds of feet' and was forced to return to Beijing

·       Texas-bound Flight 88 carrying 209 passengers and a crew of 13 on board returned to Beijing after sustaining hail damage 44 minutes into the trip

·       American has seven Dreamliners, which carry a list price of $224.6million each 

·       Plane's fuselage and wings are made from carbon-fiber composite material instead of aluminum to reduce weight

·       Delta Air Lines Flight 159 from Detroit to Seoul, South Korea, had its nose badly battered by hail while flying over China in June 

Word Play headlines from “Forbes” conjures up this image:

American Airlines' 787 Dreamliner Nightmare

"American Airlines probably thought it was making the right move when it bought seven Boeing 787 Dreamliners. After all, as I noted in my book, You Can’t Order Change, the $166 million 250 to 330 seat aircraft was known for using 20% less fuel — thus the profits from filling them up would be higher.

But that was before American Airlines Flight 88 flew through a hailstorm outside of Beijing on July 27. The result was a punched-in nose that will keep the aircraft on the ground for now.

However, I think the Forbes opinion piece is hogwash over the nose cone. It can be replaced, it can be fixed, and it just happens as all in aircraft flights. The plastic model expects hail, sleet and Ice. It also plans on having bumps on the ground. So when that happens the news flow over to the doom and gloom committee for a thorough vetting. Wall Street is not grabbing its umbrella and jumping off the nearest bridge. Read the Forbes article if it even added anything of value before you leap to an untimely conclusion about the plastic airplane."

The maturation process of the 787 is a work in progress of its all new technology. It will fly under all conceivable conditions. It can be repaired with all conceivable damage. Note the Ethiopian 787 crown fire was a first time unknown on how to repair.  It flies on just the same. The American Airlines hail incident is a 787 bloody nose during a hail storm and not a night mare as dared click on the headline, where the reader expects doom and gloom.