I am not an aviation engineer, structural engineer, metallurgist, designer, scientist, pilot nor computer expert.........but I have come to the conclusion (after a few years of reading about close calls/accidents in the news, and reading pilots first hand, as well as anecdotal reports on Pprune with Airbus aircraft) that the combination of composite structures and the overwhelming computerization (amongst other things) in them have made them unsafe for this traveller, insofar as my own "personal" level of risk tolerance goes. As of now they are off limits unless absolutely necessary......and you can put the new Boeing 787 in that category as well. No plastic airplanes for this cowboy unless they 1/32 scale. Call me stupid, uneducated or whatever, and you are probably right, but I plan on letting someone else perform the beta tests on smoking holes in the ground (or wherever). In the last 6 years I have flown 500K miles.......and as UAL is my airline of choice, avoiding their small A319/20 fleet will be easy.........for some perspective I have been a flying pax since 1969....been in 707's, the Bristol Brittania, DC-10, DC-3, Hercs, Fokker F-100, DC-9....et al.....all old crates up to the newest stuff. I have the same sinking feeling that others here do about the desire of AF as well as the associated governments involved in the business that is Airbus Industrie to sweep this thing under the rug ASAP. They couldn't even get the A380 prototype built correctly for gawds sake, they had to do an expensive redesign of the wiring where the fuselage meets the tail due to numerous screw ups between the various contractors.......when they tried to mate the two sections for the first time they couldn't. Aircraft get tossed about between 1,000' to 10,000' in the worst kind of turbulence......and survive if they pilots can keep control and the plane stays together.......plastic parts combined with computerized flight laws that limit pilots control responses have caused me to finally say........I'm out.......goodbye Airbus.
The "Black Boxes" might have been located by the "Nautile". http://www.lepoint.fr/actualites-societe/2009-06-23/vol-af-447-rio-paris-les-boites-noires-auraient-ete-reperees/920/0/354851
I understand your thoughts about trusting the new materials in the modern airplanes. Building with plastics works if the structure is properly designed. The Comet incidents were the result of bad design in the configuration of the ADF windows where sharp corners and cracks in the skins around the windows caused the failures. It wasn't the material's fault. You can use any material IF it is properly engineered. The ME262 is built of steel and wood and performed very well because it was engineered correctly. Cost cutting considerations, short schedules , poor engineering, and politics can cause structural failures. Switches
Bob- Boeing just announced a major delay in the 787 due to having to beef up small areas of the fuselage sides to take wing loads. Thankfully, they are being very conservative on this aircraft and making sure everything is as near perfect as possible before proceeding. Taz Terry Phillips
Thanks for the heads up on the 787, Terry. I hadn't heard that yet . This has happened before and always for the right reason. Might happen again. Switches
JCR..... The Canadian Air Force grounded their CF-18 fleet a while back because the two verical stabs are made of composites and had developed severe problems that they had to rectify before being allowed to fly again. Economics do not come between the military and their planes in most cases.........in the commercial sector however, economics drive the business, and pax be damned.
If you don't know they're real, why post them? And no, they're NOT real and IMO are totally in bad taste and disrespect in this thread. Nothing against you - but hopefully the mods will pull those pictures like they did when they popped in Aviation Chat. Just me I guess.
I am sure you all know I did not mean to offend anyone by posting those pics, had no way to check it out, but knew all you smart people would. Would love to go back and delete them !
S'ok I'm sure. Always remember that Google and Snopes.com are your friends - every time I get a fishy sounding but 'juicy' email, I hit the search just so I don't do the same thing. Snopes is actually quite fun if you've never been there.... makes Mythbusters a limp noodle. Jedi
but still no sign of the flight recorders. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31542846/ns/world_news-americas/ six days, by the previous estimates.
Has anyone seen any mapping of the debris field? I am sure that they are carefully plotting where each peice of debris is recovered and I would be interested to see where the various pieces have been found and how far apart they are. Of particular interest is where the tail section was found relative to the main debris field.
We have some pretty active conspiracy theorists here. If not found by the officials, before long it will be lost in Bermuda triangle or part of some deep cover conspiracy perpetrated by our government or the Bildebergers in an attempt at global domination. It's been one of those weeks. The world is full of whakos.
Correct. They wanted this plane so they could compare it to those Dauntless Dive Bombers they got off Florida back around WW2. Just to monitor our aerospace industry, so that they will not be caught with their pants down when we finally develop the Warp Drive. Seriously - I have a feeling that this will take a good long while to find at that depth and especially with the rough terrain of the sea floor there.
