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>It’s the rear spar pickle forks which crack The cracks form in the outer chord of the rear pickle forks (Figure 1) and the behind lying safety straps, just whe
by Merrill 7y ago
>It’s the rear spar pickle forks which crack
The cracks form in the outer chord of the rear pickle forks (Figure 1) and the behind lying safety straps, just where they pass from the rear spar of the center wingbox to the fuselage side of the aircraft, Figure 2.
>This is also the area where the fuselage side has a cutout to let the main landing gear strut fold in with its attached wheel.
>The combination of a wing center-wingbox pushing wing and landing gear forces into the fuselage in an area where the fuselage has a large cutout for the folded main landing gear makes this area complex regarding forces and how these work the parts during flights.
>The stress spectrum in the area can also have been affected by the later fitting of winglets on the NG, not foreseen in the original design of this area.
>Winglets change the pressure distribution of the wing to a distribution spreading further outboard, by it increasing the wing root bending moment.
https://leehamnews.com/2019/10/08/boeings-737-in-another-pickle-part-2/ https://leehamnews.com/2019/10/08/boeings-737-in-another-pic...
So Boeing also made changes from the 737 to the 737 NG without complete reanalysis of how the changes affected all the parts?
- throwaway5752 7y agoI don't think that's the case, and I don't think that's what the link you provided says. 5% of the pickle forks are showing cracks, after a minimum of 20k flights. It's probably an incorrect analysis (maybe the didn't account for enough cycles in fatigue/failure testing given the extra load from the winglets, maybe the extra load is not well understood and they had bad assumptions). I am very harsh on Boening on how they handled the MAX development and crashes. The pickle fork situation is unfortunate but seems like it is likely an honest error that was caught in the right way and is being dealt with in the right way. I fly 737s frequently, too.
- the_duke 7y agoReportedly a replacement costs 250_000$ and takes two to three weeks. Far from ideal, and potentially very expensive for Boeing if they are liable, but considering a unit cost of 100M not that dramatic. How the Max development continues seems much more important.
- Enginerrrd 7y agoAnd bragged about how they increased production, yes.