Superb British (from ooop North) aircraft design and engineering helped save everybody in Hudson River crash
The US Airways A 320 Airbus Flight 1549 that took off from La Guardia for Charlotte .NC., had a bird strike (Canada geese ?) and was attempting to land back at LG. The pilot and crew did a great job in a forced water landing - the plane did not break up and the passengers could be evacuated from the wings..
The Airbuses are the only passenger planes that can re-land immediately with a full fuel load - other planes need to dump fuel becuase the wing / undercarriage structures are not strong enough for them to land with a ful fuel load.
The Rib that supports the wing in the Airbus' is the longest, strongest and most precisely machined piece of metal in the world.
It was made about 5 miles away in Middleton - but production has recently moved because the Government pulled out of the Airbus consortium.
PS : The composite Boeing 787 Dreamliner has still not flown ... many are beginning to believe it never will.
4 comments:
pity they couldn't stretch to a bit of chicken wire over the intakes
Oooooop North the major problem is our racing pigeons but they rarely fly above 60 ft so aren't a problem.
These were Canadian geese apparently an altogether differet proposition.
GRills have been used and featured in many early jet designs but they cut the power output dramatically if strong enough anf break up and fall inthe engine causing even worse problems.
There are some live video shots available of the landing and it's a tribute to the structural strength of the plan / wings that it survived impact almost intact.
It is interesting that the FAA have fudge the testing on the Boeing 787 by making the crash testing which is roughly equivalent to droppint sectins of fuselage onto concrete.
Usually this is done with whole cells - ie a complete section through the body.
For the 787 they are using open topped cells - ie like a U shape of the bottom of the fuselage.
As this is the first composite body shelled passenger plane nobody has experience how such large structures may fracture / delaminate etc., and even distort so that exit doors will not open.
See this post Tuesday, September 18, 2007
http://tinyurl.com/a2c89v
Boeing 787 Dreamliner - ex Boeing engineer with 46 yrs experience raises major concerns about safety on Dan Rather show tonight
Has Pictures of crash tests
Always fly Airbus when you have the choice
<Just shows how much I know about jet planes/>
"9/11 Flight 93 Rare Footage"...
http://tinyurl.com/9hue2x
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