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enter image description here

Someone knows what’s the purpose of this little “hole”?

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    $\begingroup$ There is a bit of dirt, but not a heat shield. This means it's an exhaust port for something, but not something super hot, like combustion air (like an APU, which would be a lot bigger anyway). It's likely an exhaust for a heat exchanger of some kind, possibly a hydraulic fluid cooler (an air conditioning heat exchanger outlet would be larger). $\endgroup$
    – John K
    Commented Jul 2, 2019 at 20:31
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    $\begingroup$ Are you sure it's an A320neo? Other pictures of the plane showing the right side (such as here and here and here) don't show such a feature. $\endgroup$
    – bartonjs
    Commented Jul 3, 2019 at 5:45
  • $\begingroup$ Are you sure that's a picture of an A320NEO? $\endgroup$
    – Juan Jimenez
    Commented Jul 3, 2019 at 10:36
  • $\begingroup$ CUT HERE IN EMERGENCY...pure plane, please don't cut it! $\endgroup$
    – Peter
    Commented Jul 3, 2019 at 15:22
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    $\begingroup$ I’m sorry for delaying in replying! So, I’m not sure if aircraft is an A320NEO. The aircraft tail number is PR-TYN an A320-214. I think that this “hole” is connected to (Inert Gas System), but I’m not sure. $\endgroup$
    – Lucas D. T. Ferreira
    Commented Jul 3, 2019 at 21:17

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My company's A320 also have that mystery hole. After a thorough search, it's the vent outlet hole for dumping the forward cargo compt air overboard, through the extraction fan (6HN) and outlet isolation valve (4HN). Detail can be found in cargo ventilation chapter (ATA 21-28-00).

It seems that hole are not installed on every A320. From the SRM (Structural Repair Manual), that hole is surrounded by a doubler and the doubler can only be found on ...... 282 aircraft (data as of today).

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  • $\begingroup$ SRM = Structural Repair Manual? Can you add it in the answer? $\endgroup$
    – ROIMaison
    Commented Jul 24, 2023 at 13:07
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    $\begingroup$ @ROIMaison Yes and added, I thought it was quite a well-known acronym $\endgroup$
    – Jono
    Commented Jul 25, 2023 at 14:03
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It leads to a vent in the cargo compartment that Airbus calls "Outlet-Extraction". It must be an option that isn't installed very often.

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    $\begingroup$ Hi and welcome to the site! Do you have any references to support your answer? We appreciate that kind of thing. $\endgroup$
    – AEhere supports Monica
    Commented Jul 8, 2019 at 20:19

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