Fired engineer calls 787's plastic fuselage unsafe

Seattle Times Company ^ | Dominic Gates

[jpsb]

A former senior aerospace engineer at Boeing's Phantom Works research unit, fired last year under disputed circumstances, is going public with concerns that the new 787 Dreamliner is unsafe.

[goldstategop]

Carbon fiber is a safe and durable material. They've made millions of bicycles from them without reported problems. The greatest revolution in lightweight high-strength materials have been thermoplastic composites. That's right next to aluminum in building everything from cars to planes that fly in the sky.

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus

[Robert A Cook PE]

Look at the circumstances he claiming (through Dan Rather!) that would be required:

A SURVIVABLE crash of the jet - (unlikely - very, very few jets crash with people still alive who need to evacuate.

Survivors who lived through the crash, but are trying to get out ...

A fire that begins after impact, but spreads more rapidly (because of the resin/fibre construction) than a standard resin/fibre/aluminum/honeycomb construction!) ...

More people die after the 787 crash than would have otherwise.

Yes - these types of crashes have happened. But most jets auger straight in, at speeds way too fast for any to live. In TN recently, few survived the crash, and the fire-resistance of what was left of the plane didn’t matter. Seat location and luck of the impact forces were all that mattered.

[driftdiver]

“Boeing is financially self-interested and their self interests are served by an unsafe aircraft. That should be enough for anybody...”

An unsafe airplane is in their best interest? You mean one that will crash and kill people. Thereby exposing them to multi-million dollar liability lawsuits and killing future sales of their products?

You must have Boeing confused with Airbus.

[Greg F]

I agree with you. I trust Boeing, I suppose, in this. There will always be trade offs in efficiency, safety in cost though.

[gridlock]

Weldon's allegations will be aired tonight by Dan Rather, the former CBS News anchor, on his weekly investigative show on cable channel HDNet.

Where nobody will see it.

If a video of a tree falling is shown on HDNet, and nobody is tuned in to hear it, did it make a sound?

[<1/1,000,000th%]

Weldon's allegations will be aired tonight by Dan Rather, the former CBS News anchor, on his weekly investigative show on cable channel HDNet.

If Rather is involved the whole story could be fake.

Maybe Weldon is a fictional character.

[goldstategop]

If its Dan Rather doing the reporting, I'd bet the story is "fake but accurate." Like you said, who knows if Weldon - let alone his allegations - are real. I wouldn't trust anything has-been Rather puts on the air.

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus

[1L]

>>The former engineer sounds a little like a fruitcake<<

If that’s true, then Boeing has to explain why they had a fruitcake on staff for 35 years. It sounds like they were looking for a reason to fire him.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

Worked as a subcontractor for Boeing. Easily the best run company I’ve ever worked with. Hands down.

[Froufrou]

I lived there for 3 years and everyone I knew who worked there loved it. When the suffered a downsizing just before the closing at Hanford, everyone was just plain sad.

[Steve_Seattle]

I’m no engineer, but carbon fiber has been used in race cars for a number of years, and the fire hazard in race cars is lower than it’s ever been. Back in the 60s and 70s, race drivers were getting fried all the time - Bandini, Siffert, Schlesser, Courage, Williamson in F1, Sachs, McDonald, etc at Indy. Now it’s extremely rare.

[Little Ray]

It was a fumble finger; Check the next post.

Lemme try again: An unsafe aeroplane in NO way serves the financial interests of Boeing. Lawyers are settlements are WAAAAAAAY more expensive than engineers and QA personnel. And that isn’t counting the lost sales...

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

First composite air frame was the less-than-successful Beech (Raytheon) Starship. FAA certification was held up not for structural reasons, but because the fly-by-wire avionics weren’t shielded from lightning induced EMI by a metal airframe. A lot of the weight and fuel savings evaporated when they had to be retrofitted with shielded wiring.

I'm sure Boeing got a heads up from their experience.

[Froufrou]

No doubt! They were the biggest employer when I was there in the late 70s.

[burzum]

A few crash tests of the Dreamliner would seem to be in order...

The drop test of a portion of the fuselage has been done and it has passed.