5 ms·
Where do stories like this come from? Simple logic would tell you there is no possible way to weigh an aircraft coating to a milligram and verify that it match
by jki275 4y ago
Where do stories like this come from? Simple logic would tell you there is no possible way to weigh an aircraft coating to a milligram and verify that it matches a somehow measured precise amount applied to the aircraft. The concept is ridiculous.
- ttul 4y agoI’m embarrassed to say I got this “fact” from a HN comment.
- mlyle 4y agoWeighing the scrap (as one of many controls) to make sure it isn't tampered with during downstream disposal is pretty likely, even if comparing against the original coating weight isn't too practical.
- serf 4y agoit is in-fact common in the plating industry to predict/assess coating thickness via weight of product before & after the process; if you know the density/weight of the coating material then strong predictions can be made about the coating thickness given the known uniformity of the plating/anodize process. Whether or not that's done as a forensic measure after the fact, I don't know. It doesn't seem all that out of the possibilities of reality; but I don't know how they would know whether or not the cause was espionage or a particularly hard-headed birdstrike.
- jki275 4y agoI can definitely see how that could make sense as a QA measure in manufacturing, where you can really control the process and everything that happens to it. But fly the plane once, and you're not going to be able to make any realistic predictions on what the weight of the coating might be after it's been at Mach 2.0 at 50k feet (or what ever the numbers are, I have no idea) for who knows how long. Simply too many variables.
- KennyBlanken 4y ago[flagged]
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]