Do you know if the Plastic Pig is staying for the whole Paris Air show

In case Oskosh is too far away, and since this is mainly a European board I´d imagine that´s the case for most, the plastic pig will also be at the Paris Air show. Along with two B747-8s, one pax one and cargo version. June 20th to 26th, public days are from 24th to 26th.

Do you know if the Plastic Pig is staying for the whole Paris Air show, ie 20-26th June?

If so lucky French is all I can say,:cool: as last year at Farnborough it only did the Day1 and Day 2 of the Trade Days and poor me was there on both public days.

If I hadn’t just graduated and am waiting to get in to a full time graduate job I’d be off to France for the week as I have friends over there.:(

Never mind Farnborough in 2012:D

A new mobile structure made of composite material is being thrown at the elements…

A new mobile structure made of composite material is being thrown at the elements… It’s called the Boeing 787 Dreamliner fondly referred to as the ‘Plastic Pig’.

I am going to have a special celebration when I see it delivered to ANA in Q3.

My dream is to fly in it. I wish I had the ‘dosh’ to go to Oshkosh this year which in itself is a lifetime experience. Some lucky friends of mine go every year.

After first deliveries comes the real testing at the hands of customers and until then real problems (including some show stoppers will not materialise).

Let’s face it the material is known about academically and in practical usage on terra firma but until that Dreamliner begins flying all over in all types of conditions with varied handling and maintenance the industry will not get an opportunity to develop tests, improve quality and solve problems as yet un foreseen.

So you are right an evolution.

I was just exchanging email with my cousin who moved as a 1st Officer from SAS to Norwegian and now is back to SAS, about Norwegian taking RR total Care Package (1st time Norwegian have chosen RR engines) for the nine Dreamliners Norwegian are buying 1st delivery due 2012.

I have posted this topic as a thread but here’s the URL again
http://www.rollsroyce.com/civil/news/2011/norwegian_trent_100_services.jsp

Any change of speed produces acceleration but in an aircraft in flight is minimal

Any change of speed produces acceleration but in a civil aircraft in flight is minimal. e.g. compare the calculation for a car (0-100) and a civil airliner taking off and even then where the acceleration is highest, it is nothing compared to the car

The plumb line will/may rock/sway side to side minimally if any as even in a stricken aircraft disengaged from auto pilot the crew would normally execute any change from level flight very gently.

The plumb line will self correct very fast and may even to the glance made by crew be seen to be stationary.

I have not advocated that the crew stay transfixed to simply watching the plumb line but it will be their best fail safe reference (at an occasional glance) to achieve level flight if there are conflicting fly by wire systems’ messages and alarms.

A glance at the plumb line is all an experienced crew member needs as his brain will also be recording what movement of the column he/she has made.

The fly by wire systems sometimes works almost on the principle that the physical actions good crew take may or are disengaged from their neural actions/impulses. ie system knows better than human brain. This is not the case in an emergency – the human brain should win all the time in the crisis situation of a well trained crew (‘flight and fright’ kicks in – that mental impulse coupled with the adrenalin rush that says “I am going to save myself”).

Until systems analysts and ‘softies’ fly the ‘jump seat’ in aircraft in the hands of expert crew and also of novice crew these systems will stay far behind the real results good well trained and experienced crew can achieve using their human brain supported by the decision systems of the fly by wire. The exercise of fly by wire was to also eliminate good flight engineers in the 3rd seat for cost reasons which the fly by wire has done.

The art of a good pilot is knowing the strengths and weaknesses of the aircraft in your hands which includes all engineering and systems foibles as well as any strengths and weaknesses within the crew mix (achieved by team training outside of the cockpit or sim).

Here are few more useful points

Yet the basic physics of the operation is pretty straight forward, as the basic principle of the bouncing bomb is similar to that of a skimming stone. You can try this yourself anywhere such as a lake, river or calm ocean.

“The bomb characteristics – Upkeep
Cylindrical in shape, the bouncing bomb, also known as Highball or Upkeep, measured 60 inches (1,5 meter) long and 50 inches (1,3 meter) in diameter. It contained 3 hydrostatic pistols, which measured the hydrostatic pressure of the water as the bomb sank, until it was equal to the pressure corresponding to 30 feet (10 meters) depth. The bomb was also fitted with a 90 second time fuse so that if the hydrostatic mechanism failed, the bomb would still detonate. The bomb weighed a total 9250 lb (4200 kg), 6000 lb (2700 kg) of this weight being explosive charge of TNT and RDX and possibly other materials to improve the efficiency of the explosion.“

“…Gibson made a dummy run over the dam and then circled round and went in for his real attack. The German gunners were now ready for him and were probably amazed to see the Lancaster turning on its lamps (when beams merged the Lancaster was at the perilous height of 60 ft) as it approached the dam.
With the Upkeep now being revolved backwards at 500 rpm in the belly of the aircraft , Taerum talked Gibson down to the required 60 feet. At 0028 hours Spafford the bomb aimer pressed the release button and Upkeep was away for real.
Just as it did in testing, the Upkeep bounced across the lake three times before sinking down the centre of the dam. Moments later a huge column of water was thrown up as it exploded, momentarily obscuring Trevor-Roper’s view of the dam from the rear turret of AJ-G.

Dinghy Young was the fourth plane to attack in AJ-A. Despite the damage sustained during his attack Martin in AJ-P joined Gibson in trying to distract the gunners on the dam while Young made his attack. This time Gibson turned on his navigation lights to draw the gunners attention while MacCausland, Young’s bomb aimer released the Upkeep. Their attack was spot on, the bomb bounced three times, sank down next to the dam wall and exploded throwing up another huge column of water. Again the crews must have thought that the dam had gone but when the water subsided they found to their dismay that the structure was still intact. Goner 78A was sent to Grantham – Weapon released at Mohne dam, exploded on contact with the dam but no breach made.

There was an air of gloom descending over Grantham and frustration with the crews at the dam. There had been one perfect hit and another close one yet still the dam stood firm. After all, Wallis believed only one Upkeep would be required to punch a hole through the dam.

Undeterred Gibson radioed Dave Maltby into attack in AJ-J. With Gibson and Martin drawing fire on either side Maltby went in for his run. Just as he was about to release his bomb, Maltby noticed that the crown of the dam had began to crumble and the centre had opened up slightly. Young’s Upkeep had worked! AJ-J continued the attack never the less and with another perfect hit the dam gave way with spectacular effect. For some reason another ‘no breach’ message was sent back to Grantham after the attack, probably because the scene was still obscured. Gibson however soon saw a river of water rushing through the dam wall sweeping it away down the valley. He called off Shannon who was about to make his attack and ordered his wireless operator Hutchinson to send *igger back to Grantham – the codeword for the successful breach of the Mohne dam….”

http://www.thedambusters.org.uk/mohne_attack.html

http://www.1001crash.com/index-page-bomb-lg-2.html

Somehow this a unique new physics observation

The plumb line always points in the same direction as the local acceleration, plus/minus the pendulum angle if it is not in equilibrium. So unless the airplane is flying absolutely straight and level in no wind condition, your plumb line solution isn’t particularly useful.

Somehow this appears to be a unique new physics observation.

What has acceleration got to do with the plumb line I propose as the most fail safe basic item (in the event of instrument failure) in a civil aircraft cockpit to provide a line always pointing to the centre of the earth?

Also it would not be advocated or deemed necessary at the only two points where there was acceleration (take off) or deceleration (landing) as the civil aircraft would be on terra firma.

A civil aircraft in flight may accelerate in a nose down or decelerate in a nose up but usually so gently (even following a crisis) that the plumb line will move slightly but revert to pointing to the centre of earth very quickly.

If by virtue of what you say, anyone wearing a necklace or necktie should see these items streaming back behind them.

Cups of coffee and meal trays would also cause untold chaos, which they don’t.

Everything static inside a civil aircraft including inside the cockpit are all moving at the same velocity and acceleration.

Acceleration is defined as the change in velocity over time–how much an object speeds up or slows down. (“Deceleration” is the term usually used to describe negative acceleration-slowing down.) Velocity is the rate, or speed, at which an object moves over time. Mathematically, velocity is defined as the distance traveled divided by the time taken to travel that distance. For instance, an airplane that travels 50 feet in one second has a velocity of 50 feet per second, or v = 50 ft/sec. Velocity is often expressed in miles per hour or kilometers per hour-an automobile travels 60 miles per hour-it takes it one hour to travel a distance of 60 miles.

Acceleration is the change in velocity divided by the time taken to make the change. For example, if an airplane’s speed increases from 50 ft/sec to 60 ft/sec and it takes five seconds to make that change, the change in velocity during this time is 10 ft/sec (60 ft/sec – 50 ft/sec). To find the acceleration, we simply divide this change (10 ft/sec) by the time it takes to make this change–5 seconds: “10 divided by 5 is 2.”

As for the units, ft/sec divided by seconds is the same as multiplying by 1/sec, which results in ft/(s x s) or ft/s2. So, the acceleration of the airplane is 2 ft/sec2. Acceleration is also a vector, meaning it has a value and a direction.

I hope I have made it clear the plumb line is not replacing a speed/velocity/acceleration/deceleration indicator/instrument.

With the standard frame of reference being the cockpit including flight crew seats and their occupants while the luminous plumb line is always pointing to the centre of the earth allows the pilot/s to observe how far away (angular) from the normal X,Y and Z axis they are at any given time until they are at an altitude and in range of landmarks and a safe landing while being possibly safely guided by an ATC under radar control.

In my humble opinion a plumb line is a safe primitive but consistent ‘ultimate backup’ attitude indicator when hanging inside an aircraft cockpit.

Unless the bouncing bomb went over the top they caused weakening

Hi Rick

Unless the bouncing bomb went over the top they caused weakening due to impact explosion.

On the raid on the Mohne, Lancaster 2’s (M Mother in film) bomb went over the top, the others hit the dam.

The dam in virtue of design is thicker at the base.

The theory of the bouncing bomb was impact as low near the water line as possible, as you rightly confer to weaken the base.

The picture shows that this had the desired effect and the thinner top gave way finally.