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A380 whistlebower

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Wowza I had no idea!!

"Until the 1940s, commercial airplanes were not pressurized and could fly only at about 10,000 feet. Flying above the clouds, around 30,000 feet, would make flights smoother, but at that altitude a lack of oxygen and temperatures of 140 degrees below freezing would kill passengers within minutes."
 
Interesting. My Texas Instruments TI-86 does the conversion wrong. If you have a TI calculator try doing the conversion from -60 C and it might give you -140 (at least mine does). Maybe the NY times writer did the conversion on a calculator with a conversion feature that was messed up (like I did). Hopefully Texas Instruments was not involved in the development of the A380 =). But, I do find it ironic he was writing an article about faulty software in a microchip and using a calculator with such a fault itself.
 
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Flyinisforbirds said:
Interesting. My Texas Instruments TI-86 does the conversion wrong. If you have a TI calculator try doing the conversion from -60 C and it might give you -140 (at least mine does). Maybe the NY times writer did the conversion on a calculator with a conversion feature that was messed up (like I did). Hopefully Texas Instruments was not involved in the development of the A380 =). But, I do find it ironic he was writing an article about faulty software in a microchip and using a calculator with such a fault itself.

+60C = +140F

However, -60C = -76F
 
dispatcher121 said:
I feel for his family. They are suffereing. It's too bad the laws in Austria don't protect him.
dispatcher121 said:

OMG do you realize the ramifications of his allegations?
If he is correct, he will be saving MANY lives.


I think they are blowing his concerns a little out of proportion. Even if all the outflow valves failed open at the same time, it’s still going to take minutes for the aircraft to fully depressurize, not seconds. Outflow valves are not capable of generating an explosive depressurization in seconds. Most aircraft I’ve flown have max cabin rates in the ballpark of ~2000 FPM with the outflow valves fully open. Typical cabin altitudes of 4000-6000 feet at cruise above FL300 means it’s going to take a while to dump the cabin. Plenty of time to get a mask on and start a descent.

Not to say a known problem with poor system redundancy isn’t something to investigate and fix. I just don’t think it’s the life or death issue the press is making it out to be.
 

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