RAVE – Boeing aircraft that still fly with big holes in them

[cjboffoli]

It doesn’t surprise me to have seen the orgy of fear-mongering in the old media in the past few days about the big hole that blew open the side of that Quantas 747 en route from Hong Kong to Australia. No wonder so many people are afraid to fly.

What I think the old media has missed in this story is the impressive feat of American engineering these planes truly are. Commercial airliners are tremendously over-engineered and generally are built to exceed even the most extreme tolerances they could ever encounter in the real world. That a fully-loaded jumbo jet at 30,000 feet could have a massive hole blown in it and still fly and land safely is astounding to me.

I don’t work for Boeing but I suspect there are some readers of the West Seattle blog who do. I just wanted to applaud those folks for their ingenuity and competence. In a world in which it is all too common to see people, companies and governments cut corners and fall short of expectations it is refreshing to witness something that works well. In this case good engineering saved lives. The people who design and build these amazing machines should be proud of the work they do.

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[WSB]

I know at least two – and they are great people who also devote practically all their free hours to community work for no pay and not even much gratitude, but they soldier on anyway. I’ll make sure I send your post’s URL to them :) – TR

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[Anonymous]

Considering the fact that I work on Boeing planes every day that I go to work, I would like to second your applause!

Thank you for the rave, cj and thank you to all at Boeing for making my job, and millions of people, safe everyday!

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