Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Communication Breakdown
Aircraft Equipment Problem Less Severe; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Maintenance; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural FAR
General None Reported / Taken
Aircraft; Human Factors; Procedure
Departed on a maintenance ferry flight with a cracked THS Tail Spar in our aircraft; no documentation.  We were informed by a mechanic on arrival that this was the reason for the input of this aircraft to this maintenance facility.  We were never told by anyone...prior to our first block out.  (Coincidentally; the first attempt to takeoff resulted in a rejected takeoff at 60 KIAS for severe aircraft shuddering later attributed to both nose tires being significantly out of round and having to be replaced before we departed).  We had thought this flight to be a routine input for periodic maintenance/inspection.The implications of this event as described are self-explanatory regarding the boxes checked above as causal.Proper documentation and notification to the crew would have been appropriate.  I also think a test flight crew should have been tasked with this flight.
[Report Narrative Contained No Additional Information].
An MD-11 flight crew was alarmed to learn after landing that they had ferried the aircraft to a maintenance base for repair of a 'THS Tail Spar' rather than routine inspections. They had not been advised of the structural discrepancy.