At first blush it would seem Air-bus' A380 would be a nightmare for those facing the challenge of maintaining the massive air- craft's huge number of parts, large structures and difficult-to-reach places. But, as it turns out, the size of the 555-seat aircraft—or even Airbus' use of Glass-Reinforced Aluminum (Glare) or Carbon-Fiber Reinforced Plastics (CFRP)—isn't causing maintenance experts any particular headaches. What really changes maintenance considerations for the A380 is its electronics backbone. It promises to make maintenance much easier by providing technicians vast amounts of useful data to minimize unnecessary activities. At the same time, though, it is forcing maintenance shops to develop new skills, both to exploit the information technology (IT) and to keep it running.
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