Redundant Boeing 747 'Survives' Bomb Test

The Aircraft would be able to accept some structural damage and survive , look at the Hawaiian Aircraft that lost a good portion of its fuselage , but its obviously a matter of luck .http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aloha_Airlines_Flight_243

But where that came apart was above the forward freight door ,another area of beef up they were very fortunate

Not necessarily, look at that UAL 747-200 that had a whole section of it’s skin ripped off on the forward fuselage, it flew and landed successfully, albeit slightly uncomfortably!

Looks like it could be interesting:

http://news.bbc.co.uk./1/hi/world/8548021.stm?ls

But wouldn’t a pressurised aircraft have been a more realistic test as the blast seemed to pass through the skin of the fuselage (possibly through the rivets that were popped) and isn’t it usually the pressure difference that causes small areas of damage to become critical?

Also, is the skin of a 747 really 5mm thick?

No not 5mm,,,,Hardest part of airframe,,,,,do it forward or aft of the wing and oh dear massive decompression and fatal airframe fai:(lure

Looks like it could be interesting:

They didn’t even look at the ribs or stringers?

I noticed the rivets had been completely be-headed in the vicinity, not good for the strength of your skin-stringer panels. 😉

There is also a lack of fuselage bending moment from the wingbox supporting the aircraft’s weight…

Possibly aircraft would have survived… but they’ve made some big assumptions in that study.

This was mentioned in another thread in commercial and it being pressurised is exactly what I said.

I did have a quick look in Commercial but couldn’t find it…..I should have guessed at thread drift in the ‘Scrapped 747’ thread.

The Delta flight was on approach to Detroit when the bomber attempted to set off his explosives.

I didn’t realise that the flight was on approach to Detroit; that being the case what you say about pressure difference will be true. Presumably the bomber did this to increase the impact of the media coverage by ensuring that the crash would be on land and so there would be plenty for the news-crews to video.

The Delta flight was on approach to Detroit when the bomber attempted to set off his explosives. The cabin diff. pressure wouldn’t have been that high, if indeed there was any diff.pressure at all.

Another factor that cannot be accurately reproduced for the test is the effect the wind resistance has.

This was mentioned in another thread in commercial and it being pressurised is exactly what I said. I don’t see what doing this test unpressurised proves because surely the fuselage would respond differently when inflated to 8-9psi?

Paul