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Airbus A380 Under Fire
jose parinas writes "The security of the Airbus A380 jetliner is questioned by a U.S. Engineer that faces arrest and bankruptcy in Austria. A year ago, Mangan told European aviation authorities that he believed there were problems with a computer chip on the Airbus A380, the biggest and costliest commercial airliner ever built."
it runs Windoze!
I thought that a plane was getting shot at... disappointing!
I have a chaos fetish!
It sure sounds like Austria has a screwed up legal system. Corporations can bring criminal charges against individuals? Here we have horror stories about SLAPP lawsuits, but this is a whole new level. If a company or powerful person doesn't like what you have to say, you go could to jail at their whim.
What are you babbeling about? STFU already you brown skinned hindu moron.
To all the people who are rubbishing the parent post, I'd like to chip in my 2 cents worth.
As a retired pilot, I have flown a variety of aircraft, and experienced the effects of unpressurised flight flight about 10,000ft.
We ~do~ have the technology to fit sensors to cabins that detect depressurisation. Heck, what do you think triggers the oxygen masks to drop down in the first place? The problem lies with what do we do once we know the cabin is depressurised. There aren't that many places in the world where the ground terrain rises above 10,000ft, so, barring a collision with another aircraft flying the same heading, it would be feasible for the autopilot to make an emergency descent. Even if there was ground rising above 10,000ft, modern aircraft are fitted with ground avoidance radar (what causes the 'whoop-whoop, pull up!' scenario). Levelling out at 12,000ft is enough for a few people to come to and do something heroic. Flying for a few hours at that altitude on autopilot is far more likely to result in a good outcome than at 39,000ft with a frigid, depressurised cabin.
Also, don't forget that the cockpit oxygen masks drop down before the main cabin - the cockpit pressure sensor is pegged at a higher level, so that if there is a slow leak, the pilots can don their masks early and do a more controlled descent.
But, as for the plane landing itself... well, we're still a fair way off with that one. Airports have to be equipeed with differential GPS beacons that allow the plane to determine its position down to about half a metre. And this is also assuming that the aircraft has automatically reported a mayday, allowing ATC to clear the pattern. It'll get there one day, but there are still a lot of what-if scenarious that the autopilot 'AI' would have to cope with.
I never knew that about the DC-10. That is absolutely incredible. I heard about the hydraulic failure one, where the pilots had to use the engines to turn the plane, but not all the design flaws.
I've flown in a few of them, and by the Will of Allah, I guess I was cleared for further breeding. No crash means futher contribution to the gene pool.
That's pretty fuked up with the DC-10, yo.
Cockpit masks don't "drop down" - They're a far more robust (and bulky) construction than the el-cheapo plastic cup+bag things the passenger cabin has, and anyway the space above the pilots tends to be occupied by switch gear and breakers. They're stowed within easy reach of each pilot (to the side, under the seat).
You are right, commercial airliners have switch panels above. It depends on the aircraft, how/where the gas masks are in the cockpit. You fail to mention that the cockpit also has secondary gas masks with standalone gas bottles, should the main supply fail.
Lower level surely you mean (be it in terms of altitude or barometric pressure).
I mean as in the depressurisation alert in the cockpit sounds before the main cabin. Higher air pressure, lower level of depressurisation. Let's mince words.
The radio altimeter you mean? The one which provides highly accurate relative readings, but only when you're reasonably close to the ground (ie within 1 or 2k feet)? I've never heard it called "ground avoidance radar"...
Ground avoidance radar is a military term for it. If it goes off at 10,000ft, chances are it's malfunctioning, or you're flying over a mountain range. I'd like to think a few people were awake before it actually sounded at 2,000ft ASL.
If you were a pilot you would know that ILS and auto-land systems have existed since at least the 1960's which can guide an aeroplane to within 50ft or so of the runway and that more recent ILS (since the 80s or so? can bring the aeroplane to 0ft. You'd also know that ILS uses two polarised planes of radio waves - GPS doesn't come into it at all.
Of course I know about ILS. And great, if the plane is actually within range of an airport, it might even pick up an ILS beacon. While it's in the middle of the atlantic though, those signals tend to get a bit weak. Have a read up on DGPS. It's where the fun is at these days.
(FWIW, my father *really* is a retired commercial aviation pilot).
So my 400 odd hours as a commercial pilot (albeit not a passenger airliner pilot) doesn't count?
Yes, you. You are the kind of bitchass I fix in metamoderation. But hey, if you want to spend your Saturday evening squandering mod points on /., help yourself.
I work for a big time government contractor. I
see poor quality stuff all the time. The wistle
blower "protection" in the US won't help, I'd be
in the same boat as this guy, my name would be
mud, and I'd never get another job.
If you point it out, then you better have *LOTS*
of evidence, and only take it up one or two
management levels. If you go over someones head
you are still a wistle blower, and would end up
as mud again.
US getting the best military, governement service
or anything from big private contractors is
impossible with all the profit these companies
need for them selves. They'll cut corners at the
drop of a hat. If there are documentable
problems, they go back to the government for a
handout, or refuse to fix them.
I work on a large project for a government
administration, and the development phase is
done. Now they are starting the integration
phase. The schedule was impossible in development
features were left out, and bugs were left in.
No the government has to pay for the fixes
as if they were done, and it was tested, but the
trouble slipped through the cracks. (At least
they tried to make the basics work before pulling
the wool over the eyes of the government).
Scarebus just had a front gear failure a few days back in LA.
Scarebus are the worst planes. If it ain't Boeing I ain't Going.
Scarebus just had a front gear failure a few days back in LA.
Scarebus just had a front gear failure a few days back in LA.
Scarebus just had a front gear failure a few days back in LA.
(FWIW, my father *really* is a retired commercial aviation pilot).
Wait. So you mean your parent is a troll who used to fly commercial aircraft? Wow, talk about your upwardly mobile. That's definitely +5 Interesting to me. Ah but being a rebellious Mod (about 30 years late, btw), you find the whole "parent" thing rather For a second there I even thought I was reading Slashdot...
What idiot has trees at the end of a run way.
They should have at least 1000ft of no trees.
I dont care what those green pinko enviro idiots say, its only a small am ount of trees
Liberty freedom are no1, not dicks in suits.
Do the search from your corrupt boss's computer. The dumbass probably uses windoze, so it should not be too hard to get in there to do it. Good luck!
DMCA, Hollings, Palladium. What might have sounded like paranoia is now common sense.