3 ms·

I completely agree with you - on at least three of the dozen or so flights I've taken this year, when there was a problem with the passenger area (Audio in one

I completely agree with you - on at least three of the dozen or so flights I've taken this year, when there was a problem with the passenger area (Audio in one case, WiFi in another, and finally my POWER connector in the third) - the flight attendants power cycled the entire system, which took about 15 minutes, and let me watch the Linux boot process on the back-of-seat console. My suspicion is the "Reboot" approach is pretty common to aviation systems. It wouldn't surprise me that many of the components are rebooted daily, and almost certainly on a weekly basis. 120+ days without a reboot sounds unlikely to me.

userbinator 12y ago
IFE and other "passenger amenities" are not considered critical-to-flight, and it definitely shows in their reliability (or lack thereof)... the avionics are designed to a much higher level of reliability.
Jtsummers 12y ago
Dittoing userbinator here. Avionics systems aren't generally treated so casually. DO-178B [0] has several levels of designations for criticality of systems. A is the highest. Essentially, if these fail, people will die. E is the lowest. If these fail, people are inconvenienced. Passenger AV systems, wifi, those are conveniences and are not held to a terribly high standard. [0] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DO-178B http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DO-178B
gkop 12y ago
Jtsummers, userbinator: This 787 bug shuts down the generators which I understand provide only the AC power aboard the aircraft? How critical is this AC power?
- twistedpair 12y ago
  B787 is a mostly electric airliner. There are far fewer hydrolic/cable operated systems than in previous planes. This is much safer since a explosion/leak/breach/clog in a hydrolic line won't take out an entire hydrolic system (most planes have 3 systems and fuse valves to mitigate this). However, since there are so many electricly operated systems, you really need power. The B787 as is No Bleed [1], so electrical power is also used to pressurize it [2]. Need Electric Power. [1] http://www.boeing.com/commercial/aeromagazine/articles/qtr_4_07/article_02_1.html http://www.boeing.com/commercial/aeromagazine/articles/qtr_4... [2] http://www.airliners.net/aviation-forums/tech_ops/read.main/218933/ http://www.airliners.net/aviation-forums/tech_ops/read.main/...
  - ghshephard 12y ago
    Isn't most of that DC power though? How much of it is AC power (like the power that each passenger seat gets?) That's the power that I was talking about requiring a reboot. Not sure if it's related to the AC power associated with the bug in question - possible there are two AC power systems on the plane?

userbinator 12y ago

IFE and other "passenger amenities" are not considered critical-to-flight, and it definitely shows in their reliability (or lack thereof)... the avionics are designed to a much higher level of reliability.

Jtsummers 12y ago

Dittoing userbinator here. Avionics systems aren't generally treated so casually. DO-178B [0] has several levels of designations for criticality of systems. A is the highest. Essentially, if these fail, people will die. E is the lowest. If these fail, people are inconvenienced. Passenger AV systems, wifi, those are conveniences and are not held to a terribly high standard. [0] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DO-178B http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DO-178B

gkop 12y ago

Jtsummers, userbinator: This 787 bug shuts down the generators which I understand provide only the AC power aboard the aircraft? How critical is this AC power?

twistedpair 12y ago
B787 is a mostly electric airliner. There are far fewer hydrolic/cable operated systems than in previous planes. This is much safer since a explosion/leak/breach/clog in a hydrolic line won't take out an entire hydrolic system (most planes have 3 systems and fuse valves to mitigate this). However, since there are so many electricly operated systems, you really need power. The B787 as is No Bleed [1], so electrical power is also used to pressurize it [2]. Need Electric Power. [1] http://www.boeing.com/commercial/aeromagazine/articles/qtr_4_07/article_02_1.html http://www.boeing.com/commercial/aeromagazine/articles/qtr_4... [2] http://www.airliners.net/aviation-forums/tech_ops/read.main/218933/ http://www.airliners.net/aviation-forums/tech_ops/read.main/...
- ghshephard 12y ago
  Isn't most of that DC power though? How much of it is AC power (like the power that each passenger seat gets?) That's the power that I was talking about requiring a reboot. Not sure if it's related to the AC power associated with the bug in question - possible there are two AC power systems on the plane?