Originally Posted by
rydabent
But before you use the argument that planes made of CF are so wonderful, remember that the CF tails broke off of at least 3 French Airbus airplanes killing hundreds.
I think that the cause of those failures was found to be excessive pilot use of rudder to control oscillations due to wake vortices from other planes. I suspect that you could break off any control surface if you apply enough oscillatory force. So I don't think its just CF that's to blame.
CF is just another engineering material. For some things, like plane control surfaces and bicycle forks, it's terrific stuff.