Or an attempt to self-destruct was made, but failed. I believe that most people (myself included) do not have sufficient knowledge of all the actual facts to competently evaluate this incident.

(Written on 2021/02/28)(Permalink)

How many nm South ? What is the range of a cruise missile in nm ?

(Written on 2021/02/28)(Permalink)

I would never downvote a statement made by Sparkie. Has anyone who downvoted this post got detailed knowledge of the sensor used in the center tank of a 741 and that it would be carrying sufficient current to create a spark inside the tank if the tank was "empty" except for fumes from unusable fuel and air ? At 13:09 local (20h09Z) on 21 February 2021 the crew of AAL2292 flying at 37,000 feet over New Mexico claimed an object resembling a missile passed over them at high speed. If the object had impacted their aircraft, even if the object only had a dummy warhead, the kinetic energy alone could have resulted in the downing of the A320. There was naval activity south of Long Island on July 17 1996. A missile does not have to detonate a warhead in order to cause sufficient damage to bring down an airliner.

(Written on 2021/02/27)(Permalink)

Thanks. Reducing weight (Torsten Hoff said "mass", the same thing) seems to make a lot of sense especially to reduce the centrifugal force on the hub attachment. I hadn't realised the blades weighed as much as 30 lbs each. Looking at the photographs it appeared that either a leading fan blade or an initial compressor stage blade had broken. I initially thought the hollow blade was for cooling, and I could understand that for later stages where air was heated under compression or, more especially, for the turbine blades. But for the fan, or initial compressor blades, cooling didn't make sense to me. I felt that at the initial stages the airflow over the blades would be at ambient temperature and even after the air had passed the initial compression stages I can't imagine there would be so much of a heat increase as to require special cooling of the blade internals. I could also imagine channels being designed in such a way as to induce uniform heat expansion of the blade ma

(Written on 2021/02/22)(Permalink)

Thanks for the reply.

(Written on 2021/02/22)(Permalink)

Are there hollow blades on this PW4000 ?

(Written on 2021/02/22)(Permalink)

Can someone please explain why there are any downvotes for Patrick's post. I happen to feel that two humans in the cockpit of any a/c is safer than one human and electronics. If one system is better than two why don't we get rid of all redundant systems, starting with two AoAs on 737s ?

(Written on 2021/02/22)(Permalink)

What is/are the advantage(s) of hollow blades over solid blades ? It seems to me that solid blades would be far more robust, easier to manufacture and visibly inspect than hollow blades. A solid blade with the same exterior dimensions as a hollow blade is more substantial. In a hollow blade a surface defect such as a crack might form on the inside void and thus not be detectable without sonic equipment but a similar surface defect would be visible on the exterior of a solid blade.

(Written on 2021/02/22)(Permalink)

In today's polarized political world if someone was planning to vandalize or burglarize a senator's home it would be useful for the would-be vandal or burglar to know that the senator and his family were out of the country and when they planned to return. If the senator's office wanted the public to be informed then his office could issue a press release or give the information to inquirers. But I feel an airline should strongly discourage its employees from sharing this kind of information.

(Written on 2021/02/21)(Permalink)

F5 F20

(Written on 2021/02/19)(Permalink)