Vitaphone Racing wrote:Rubiconic Crossings V2 rev 1f wrote:Same can be said for Boeing as well...
Not on the same scale of Airbus. Airbus is still trying to figure out how to make the wing entirely out of composites (or weighing up whether or not to cheat like Boeing did) and find suppliers for everything. Not to mention the other problems remaining exclusive to the ultra-strech -1000 variant at the moment.
And you know what? Good for them for taking extra time to figure things out and work on problems. That way when A350s are being delivered they won't have problems with cracking glass, fires, or wings snapping off. They'll be well engineered, quality machines that don't put aircrews and passengers at undue risk.
Rubiconic Crossings V2 rev 1f wrote:Northern Dominus wrote:I can just imagine the conversation.
"Those engine mounts look like they have far too many bolts holding it on. Is there any way you can cut back on the number of bolts? It adds up over time y'know."
"Uh..those bolts are there to make sure the engine doesn't fall off. The reason we use so many is because if a few fail because of a defect in the metal that we can't detect the others can hold it in place long enough for the plane to safely land."
"Yeah....so about removing some of the bolts from the engine mount..."
I'm guessing it was something along those lines?
Well he was more on the defense side but conversations along those lines? Oh yes.
Its like that entire O-ring thing for the shuttle...when the Morton-Thiokol snr management told the head of engineering to take off his engineer hat and put on his management hat...when he was holding out for a launch delay for temps to rise...
Gawd, it won't be the terrorists but the bean counters that kill us all. And have we learned from that mistake? Let's see, now that spaceflight is ENTIRELY in the hands of the private sector...
In that case then the conversation probably went like this:
"Excuse me Mr Engineer, but what is the point of these mounting brackets at the bottom of the cockpit?"
"Uh, Mr. Bean Counter, those mounting brackets are for the ejection seat..."
"Ejection seat? Why does an aircraft need an ejection seat? Couldn't we use a seat from one of the first-class cabins?"
"Uh...Mr. Bean Counter, this is an F-15C Eagle."
"Yes it's a big aircraft with only one seat, seems rather wasteful.."
"It's an air superiority fighter. It's so big and only has one seat because it's meant to fly very fast and carry a lot of missiles."
"Uh huh..."
"And because it will be flying fast and carrying a lot of missiles in enemy territory, odds are at some point it will be shot at."
"Okay, I'm listening, go on Mr. Engineer..."
"And if an aircraft gets hit by a warhead while flying at 1.5 times the speed of sound, 99 percent of the time it will be unflyable."
"Yes, flying at supersonic speeds and warheads..."
"So if that happens Mr. Bean Counter the ejection seat will launch the brave pilot out of the aircraft and deploy a parachute, allowing him to land safely and be picked up by search and rescue, whereupon he can then be put into another F-15C Eagle that we sold them to fight another day."
"...I hear what you're saying, but couldn't you just install a big comfy seat from a first class cabin and give it bigger belts? Why can't he assume the position like airline passengers do if his airplane becomes unflyable?"
"...oh for fuck's sake..."