You neglected

Post #272,137

11/3/06 9:50:07 PM

8/21/07 6:27:22 AM

You neglected

Firing a weapon through a fuel tank, into a jet engine, through a hydraulic line, severing a control cable...

As to the airspeed thing - I think its not much of a factor. I've stood in the doors of a lot of airplanes in flight (including a 727 doing about 160 kts at 15k feet). You don't notice any kind of "suction" effect from the airspeed - just drag from the air going past.

Edited by tuberculosis Nov. 3, 2006, 09:53:09 PM EST

You neglected

Firing a weapon through a fuel tank, into a jet engine, through a hydraulic line, severing a control cable...

Edited by tuberculosis Aug. 21, 2007, 06:27:22 AM EDT

You neglected

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Post #272,140

by boxley

11/3/06 10:02:12 PM

also, design of particular aircraft

[link|http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/2001/Jan/18/118localnews1.html|http://the.honolulua...18localnews1.html]

Boeing says the 737 was designed to decompress safely with as much as a 40-inch crack in the plane\ufffds skin, the 0.036-inch thick, aluminum outer layer of the fuselage. Instead of an explosive decompression, the hole in the skin is supposed to release internal pressure in a controlled way. In the Aloha accident, investigators concluded that more damage occurred \ufffd about 18 feet of the fuselage tore away \ufffd because many fatigue-caused cracks had gone undetected.

Austin says that a weakened fuselage was not the main reason for the extensive damage.

A 10-inch-by-10-inch hole opened, he says, in the roof of the cabin at a location known as body station 500. (Body stations are points on the fuselage that are measured in inches from near the nose of the jet to the rear.) A powerful stream of air swept an Aloha flight attendant off her feet and toward the hole, Austin says. Her head and right arm went through the hole, he says, but her body momentarily plugged it, blocking the escaping air and creating a jolt of pressure that ripped the jet apart. The flight attendant was swept out, and her body was never found.

"Slamming the door on a 700 mph jet stream creates a localized, short-duration high-pressure spike, up to several orders of magnitude (greater than) the allowable design pressure," Austin says. "This is a fluid hammer."

thanx,
bill

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