Random photos, comics, etc.

[Frank Cox]

The point is, it's not an exit. It isn't even a door. It's an opening in the fuselage with a cover plate bolted over it.

From the point of view of the passengers in the plane, it's just another section of the interior wall of the plane.

Are you going to attempt to exit by pushing on a random spot on the wall or will you go to the place where there's a door and use that?

[Tony Bandiera Jr]

No.

That's convenience over safety which is exactly the wrong way to go about any (real) engineering project.

It really is a beginner-level mistake.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_Ring

I disagree, insofar as the purpose of the door in this case is concerned..there is so little space INSIDE the cabin and seat area that an emergency exit opening INWARD would be a serious obstacle to fast egress, which is the whole point of those emergency exits. If you read the card or decal you'll see that on many aircraft, when used as an emergency exit, it opens out and is actually discarded outside the aircraft. I understand that some of the closure designs use a series of pins (like in a bank vault) that when the lever is used, retracts those pins and you push OUT on the door to remove it. (Just like all standard emergency exits are required to push OUT, never PULL, to be opened.)

Now the physics of a pressurized cabin back up your position fully, which I agree with you and your brother on.

BUT the elephant in the room (or plane) is the reality of how people react in an emergency situation, and there are many who would, in the height of panic, be frantically PUSHING on that exit (since that's where they want to go, right?) and if the door required ANY kind of pulling to the inside.....lots of people get hurt or die. Think about it.

The final test? Which way do the emergency exits in your theatre open?

[Leo Enticknap]

After two or three DC-10 accidents involving cargo bay doors blowing out in the 1970s and IIRC, some later airliner designs had the doors opening inwards for exactly this reason. The problem was that the door restricted what could go through the opening, making it impossible to pass a standard size cargo container through it, with the result that Boeing and Airbus went back to doors that swung outwards, but with beefed up latching and fastening mechanisms. Basically, they decided to accept an intrinsic risk for greater reward.

[Frank Cox]

No.

That's convenience over safety which is exactly the wrong way to go about any (real) engineering project.

It really is a beginner-level mistake.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_Ring

[Tony Bandiera Jr]

My brother (the engineer) pointed out that there's an obvious and simple design flaw where that door cover is on the outside of the frame. If it was on the inside the interior pressure would help hold it in place rather than pushing it off.

The reason it has to be on the outside is because that opening is intended to be readily retrofitted to an actual emergency exit door, which MUST open outwards, not in. To design it as your engineer brother pointed out would require actual modifications to the hinge and stop points on the airframe for the conversion, which opens up a LOT of other inspections and certifications to do that retrofit. They tried to KISS, but it bit them in the ass. Current reports are blaming QC issues at the Spirit plant that built it.

[Frank Cox]

My brother (the engineer) pointed out that there's an obvious and simple design flaw where that door cover is on the outside of the frame. If it was on the inside the interior pressure would help hold it in place rather than pushing it off.

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

Yea, finding that part so fast will generate a proper repair procedure for it pretty quickly, and there are six of those "plug doors on that model... the higher capacity version has extra evacuation doors in those 6 places.

[Leo Enticknap]

A second phone was also found, but they didn't say much about it.

Maybe its owner was watching porn on it when the thing got sucked out?

But yes, that's a pretty impressive ad, both for the iPhone, and whatever protective case/shell its owner had put on it.

As for the door, it came down in a suburban backyard. 20 feet in the other direction, and it could have gone through the roof of a house, onto a car ... yet another astonishingly lucky escape.

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

Yea, and that iPhone falling from 16k feet and not a scratch on it. But I'm still not buying one... A second phone was also found, but they didn't say much about it.

Good one Tony! I think Boeing's problems may well extend to all the planes of that model. I'd rather drive anyway, too much stuff to see and do along the way. Airports suck, and so do the airports. Some are so big now that one may need to take a copter from one side to get to a connecting flight at a gate on the other side.

[Tony Bandiera Jr]

Boeing takes the "We have an open door policy" to new heights....

[Leo Enticknap]

image.png

Low hanging fruit, but satisfying nonetheless...

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

There is also a carpet museum in Salt Lake City. Looks like a Cinerama Theater!

[Frank Cox]

carpet-museum-10-v2.jpg
The Azerbaijan National Carpet Museum
What a nifty looking building.

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

Yesterday was Winter Solstice... Shortest day of the year. I wonder how that would have affected different things???

[Jim Cassedy]

Is there another extra-full moon this week? Or has the earth shifted on its' axis?
I seem to have encountered several unusual oddities in the booth this week:

> NETFLIX, the company that recently announced they will no longer
ship out blu-ray & dvd disks, has started sending me stuff on 35mm.
NetFlixCan.jpg
(not that that's a bad thing . . )

When did this happen? Does this mean that future 35mm prints
from MGM will arrive in one of those Amazon delivery vans?
MGM_Amazon.jpg

This year's DCP of ELF arrived from WB with a 3½ min tribute 'clip reel' before the
feature commemorating WB's 100th anniversary. But in THE VERY FIRST CLIP, we see
Judy Garland, superimposed over the famous trademark water tower on the WB
studio lot, reciting the line "there's no place like home" from The Wizard Of Oz.
- - but wait a minute. . . W-O-Z was an MGM picture. WTF does that have to do with WB?
WB_Judy.jpg

It's little things like this that keep me awake some nights. . . ,.