IIRC, the 747 was designed the old fashioned way before those tasks were turned over to computers. Back in the early '70s the company I was with hired a laid off Boeing engineer and got a nice bit of assistance from the government for doing so. The guy wanted to leave the Seattle area anyway so he could be close to his aging mother, so it was a win-win for him. He told us young engineers that when Boeing wanted to mock up a new plane they would order up 3 train car loads of plywood (a fairly cheap commodity in the Pacific Northwest in those days) and have a couple of master carpenters go to work. Not that the thing would fly, but more for the "look and feel" of what was being proposed.
When I was a kid a TWA Constellation had a problem with lowering the landing gear so the plane was diverted to a nearby naval air station and after circling for quite a while to burn off most of the plant's fuel it landed on a foam soaked runway, courtesy of the Navy. Was not inquisitive enough at that age to wonder if the Connie could have been repaired or had to be scrapped.
And how often does THAT ever happen? Hopefully it was a once-in-ten-million stress fracture break.
ReplyDeletePresident Elect B Woodman
Planes don't need wheels to fly.
ReplyDeleteRiiiiiight.
DeleteThey only need wheels to land.
And landings will always equal takeoffs.
One way or another.
Funny thing, though - they sure need 'em to get around on the ground...
DeleteJuan Browne (Blancolirio) explains:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y0JU8u0kPOc
This plane is the same model (747-400) as the Global Supertanker was.
They knew it was going to happen,I don’t know how?Tha Fire Dept was in position to chase it down the runway
ReplyDeleteAfter takeoff they couldn't retract the landing gear and knew they had a problem. Watch Juan's video link above.
DeleteI don't know much about jets and the such, but that probably shouldn't happen.
ReplyDeleteThe 747 has the best safety record in history saw a documentary on it once pretty amazing and glorious planes
ReplyDeleteIIRC, the 747 was designed the old fashioned way before those tasks were turned over to computers. Back in the early '70s the company I was with hired a laid off Boeing engineer and got a nice bit of assistance from the government for doing so. The guy wanted to leave the Seattle area anyway so he could be close to his aging mother, so it was a win-win for him. He told us young engineers that when Boeing wanted to mock up a new plane they would order up 3 train car loads of plywood (a fairly cheap commodity in the Pacific Northwest in those days) and have a couple of master carpenters go to work. Not that the thing would fly, but more for the "look and feel" of what was being proposed.
DeleteWhen I was a kid a TWA Constellation had a problem with lowering the landing gear so the plane was diverted to a nearby naval air station and after circling for quite a while to burn off most of the plant's fuel it landed on a foam soaked runway, courtesy of the Navy. Was not inquisitive enough at that age to wonder if the Connie could have been repaired or had to be scrapped.
Wheel I'll be fooked.
ReplyDeletePresident Elect B Woodman
Maintenance, it's a good thing...not a bad thing.
ReplyDeleteCargolux seems to test the landing gear on the 747 regularly.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qJsy6IGChQ
Possibly designed by one of the new crop of DEI engineers? So that blacks can feel better about themselves
ReplyDelete