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Lastly, I wonder how long this kind of thing has been going on, and it was just never either noticed or made public.

Oh, it was not secret. I remember reading here and there about number of cracked, gouged or simply lost tiles having to be replaced after every flight (that was one factor in making initial turn-around time promises wildly off-mark).
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Dragi "Bonzi" Raos Q#5196 MkII #080000376, 18GB green MkIIa #040103247, 60GB blue