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Boeing Dreamliner Safety Concerns Are Specious
SoyChemist writes in to note his article at Wired Science on the uproar Dan Rather has stirred up with his claim that Boeing's new 787 Dreamliner aircraft may be unsafe. "Dozens of news agencies have jumped on the bandwagon. Most of them are reporting that the carbon fiber frame may not be as sturdy as aluminum. Few have bothered to question Rather's claims that the composite materials are brittle, more likely to shatter on impact, and prone to emit poisonous chemicals when ignited. While there is a lot of weight behind the argument that composite materials are not as well-studied as aircraft aluminum, the reasoning behind the flurry of recent articles may be faulty. The very title of Rather's story, Plastic Planes, indicates a lack of grounding in science. Perhaps the greatest concern should be how well the plane will hold up to water. Because they are vulnerable to slow and steady degradation by moisture, the new materials may not last as long as aluminum. Testing them for wear and tear will be more difficult too."
Reember, news is no longer about full and honest reporting, it is about money. Quick bucks by sensational stories. If CBS, NBC, etc pick up on this, they pay HDNet for the rights and footage, and in turn sell adspace for their own reports. None of them care if it's right, they care of it pads the wallet.
Karma Whoring for Fun and Profit.
Having spent a fair amount of time on Mountain Bikes Made Of Exotic Materials, and having experienced (nay- CAUSED) catastrophic failures of various alloys of steel, crome-moly, aluminum, and structural members of carbon-fiber, I'll just relate my experience:
When an aluminum BIKE part gets nicked, or scratched, by brushing up against a rock, or having another bike lay down on top of it, there's a pretty decent chance that you're going to have to live with a nasty, ugly nick on that part for many, many years, (unless you sand it down and polish it, or whatever). Mind you; aluminum bike parts are make much beefier than aluminum airplane parts - probably different alloy as well.
When a carbon-fiber part suffers even a very minor nick or scratch, it does not take many more hours of riding before that nick develops into a fracture, and that fracture unzips into a full-on shear-crack all the way through.
The last used Mountain Bike I bought, came with a carbon fiber handle bar that the Previous Owner thought was cool. I took it off, gave it back to him, and bought an aluminum one. If I need to save 2 oz of weight, I'll take a piss before I ride. That way, I get to maybe keep all my teeth a bit longer.
That said; the potential weight savings of one carbon fiber handlebar, ridden maybe once a week, versus a fleet of carbon fiber planes, each flying perhaps 3-5 trips a day, the savings are more significant.
But if these carbon fiber fusalages have the same wear and tear characteristics as cf used in cycling applications, then I suspect it won't be more than a year or two before we start seeing catastrophic airframe failures, just from pressure-cycling these things. Hopefully, I never have to fly in one before the FAA figures that out and grounds the fuckers. Carbon Fiber scares the crap out of me. Show me a 99.9999% safety record over 10 years before I change my mind.
These are my friends, See how they glisten. See this one shine, how he smiles in the light.
We live in a world where terrorism is supposed to be the biggest threat to humankind. Especially in the country where the Dreamliner ist built they wage a so called "Global War on Terror (GWOT)". The money spent on this war and the additional money that went into security measures on the ground in relation to the lives lost or the potential lives lost to terror in the future is beyond any sane comparison.
For example: Even if you believe that there is only a very limited chance (lets say 10%) that global warming is in some part connected to the emision of greenhouse gases like methane or carbon dioxide the investment/benefit ratio in that area is so redicilously low compared to the fight against terror it is not even funny (especially, since this is a global issue and does not only effect Americans).
At this point I won't go into traffic safety, disease control (like developement and treatment in vaccines) or simply health care, because those are so much better researched that any comparison to terror in the investment/benefit ratio would be outrageous. I also don't want to go into the problems caused by limiting freedom in many ways (it does cost a lot of money to listen in on every telepone call).
And anyone here is surprised that shit like "carbon is unsafe, so we shouldn't fly Boeing" works in said country?