Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!ncrlnk!ncr-sd!hp-sdd!hplabs!hpda!hpcuhb!hpindda!mears
From: mears@hpindda.HP.COM (David B. Mears)
Newsgroups: sci.space.shuttle
Subject: Re: Toughness of Boeing craft
Message-ID: <3330012@hpindda.HP.COM>
Date: 8 Nov 88 20:50:35 GMT
References: <1543@banzai-inst.sw.mcc.com>
Organization: HP Information Networks, Cupertino, CA
Lines: 44

> / hpindda:sci.space.shuttle / wex@banzai-inst.sw.mcc.com (Alan Wexelblat) / 12:44 pm  Nov  7, 1988 /
> In article <4995@cadnetix.COM>, eriks@cadnetix.COM (Eriks Ziemelis) writes:
> > The early B-52 bomber (Boeing plane) had huge pointy tails. The story goes that
> > about 10 feet of the tail got knocked off and still managed to fly and land
> > no problem. Rumor has it, the pilot reported that he had better response and
> > control. The next generation of B-52s had shorter tails (flat topped).
> 
> The WWII-era Boeing B-17 was legendary for the amount of damage it could
> absorb and still keep flying.  Pilots flew them with one engine (of four),
> put them into vertical climbs & dives and got away with it, etc.

This really isn't the right notes group for this, but I'll tell it anyway.

A couple of years ago I went on a tour of the Boeing 747 plant near Seattle.
The tour guide told us of a test that was done there once.  The engineers
wanted to find out how much stress the 747 wings could take before breaking.
So they built a frame work of the fuselage and wings, fastened it to the
ground, attached a large crane to the wing tips and pulled.  The wings never
did break; instead the fuselage finally buckled inward.  They must be doing
something right there!
> 
> Since this is sci.space.shuttle, the question is then: why isn't Boeing
> building our shuttles?

What's really disturbing is not so much that we end up with a product that
was built by the lowest bidder (with the quality to match) but that the
contracter always ends up with cost overruns and the thing ends up costing
more than the higher bidders anyway.  I don't how to do it, but the govt.
needs to change the way it does contracts so that bidders are forced to
meet the bids they make along with the quality required.
> 
> -- 
> --Alan Wexelblat      ARPA: WEX@MCC.COM
>                       UUCP: {rutgers, uunet, &c}!cs.utexas.edu!milano!wex
> 
> "Old VW buses never die - they just get captured by Deadheads."
> ----------

David B. Mears
Hewlett-Packard
Cupertino CA
hplabs!hpda!mears

"The trouble with this world is that there are too many cynics in it."