5 ms·
Single points of failure can emerge but hopefully they're rare. The classic case is something like British Airways Flight 38 at Heathrow in 2008: http://en.wik
by cstross 14y ago
Single points of failure can emerge but hopefully they're rare. The classic case is something like British Airways Flight 38 at Heathrow in 2008:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Airways_Flight_38 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Airways_Flight_38
(By sheer good luck and good piloting skills the crew were able to make it over the runway threshold after both engines lost power during final approach: injuries and a hull loss, but no deaths. Problem was a design flaw in the fuel oil heat exchangers, only triggered by unusual meteorological conditions on a long flight. Both engines had the same design issue and were drinking the same fuel ...)
- rogerbinns 14y agoAnd if it had been a 4 engine plane the same issue would have been present (or even a 24 engine plane). Sadly I can't find the article any more but did read one about how each new generation of commercial aircraft is increasingly aerodynamically efficient. The side effect of that is how much further they can glide from the same starting point (less drag). Its hard to find numbers that aren't speculation but it seems like 1980s era designs (eg 767) are around 15:1 and current generation are around 20:1. Wikipedia even has a page about flights that required gliding: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_airline_flights_that_required_gliding http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_airline_flights_that_re...