Southwest Airlines Uncontained Engine Failure, One Fatality (4/17/18)

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cpotisch said:
Trogdor said:
Changing engine types on an already-built jet is a costly and extensive process, and thus is rarely ever done.
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It's easy on the 787, which was specially designed to operate interchangeably between the two engine types. To swap engines, all they have to do is slightly modify the pylons, stick on the new engines, and they're done.
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None of the stories to which you linked claims NH is replacing RR with GE. Although the engines themselves are periodically swapped for maintenance and repair the engine type that was supplied at delivery is almost always the same type installed when the aircraft is decommissioned or written off decades later. Replacing 100 engines is a huge and expensive undertaking and RR has little if any incentive to assist NH with moving to another engine manufacturer.
 
Devil's Advocate said:
cpotisch said:
Trogdor said:
Changing engine types on an already-built jet is a costly and extensive process, and thus is rarely ever done.
Click to expand...
It's easy on the 787, which was specially designed to operate interchangeably between the two engine types. To swap engines, all they have to do is slightly modify the pylons, stick on the new engines, and they're done.
Click to expand...
None of the stories to which you linked claims NH is replacing RR with GE. Although the engines themselves are periodically swapped for maintenance and repair the engine type that was supplied at delivery is almost always the same type installed when the aircraft is decommissioned or written off decades later. Replacing 100 engines is a huge and expensive undertaking and RR has little if any incentive to assist NH with moving to another engine manufacturer.
Click to expand...
I noticed that I had misread after I posted, and subsequently removed the links.
 
cpotisch said:
Trogdor said:
Changing engine types on an already-built jet is a costly and extensive process, and thus is rarely ever done.
Click to expand...
It's easy on the 787, which was specially designed to operate interchangeably between the two engine types. To swap engines, all they have to do is slightly modify the pylons, stick on the new engines, and they're done.
Click to expand...
You cut off the Burninator's very next sentence...

Trogdor said:
While originally Boeing wanted to design the 787 so that swapping between GE and RR engines was as simple as a regular engine change, that capability did not make it into the final aircraft design.
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I wonder if the aircraft would have had "Concorde sized" windows, would that have prevented the fatal accident of that passenger? Not that I am advocating tiny windows, as with that logic, the next progression would be to have no windows. Maybe some other way to harden the windows further?
 
In the past, there have been examples of uncontained engine failure that caused body panels to puncture where there was no window, leading to explosive depressurization. Absence of windows is no guarantee for safety in the face of such failures.
 
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railiner said:
I wonder if the aircraft would have had "Concorde sized" windows, would that have prevented the fatal accident of that passenger? Not that I am advocating tiny windows, as with that logic, the next progression would be to have no windows. Maybe some other way to harden the windows further?
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The 737 family is the world's most popular mainline commercial aircraft and has no known issues with window design or any predisposition toward uncontained engine failures leading to explosive decompression. Nor does the 737 need to survive the Concorde's unique mission and flight profile. This isn't the de Havilland Comet (previous example of known window and skin issues) and if the 737 had major design problems we should be seeing similar events all over the world. That being said, WN has been caught excessively delaying and improperly reporting mandatory maintenance and safety work in the past and it's not inconceivable that they didn't learn their lesson last time. I find it genuinely perplexing how a culture that reacts so strongly to airline related incidents and accidents is so quick to return to the false hope of self-regulation the moment things quite down again.
 
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one of the selling points of the new generation 787 over its competition is that it has larger windows....if people only realized that windshield panels on planes crack way more often than passenger windows...
 
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cpotisch said:
Devil's Advocate said:
The 737 family is the world's most popular mainline commercial aircraft
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I thought it's now the A320...
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What I mean is that the total number of B737 deliveries exceeds the total number of A320 deliveries. Either way the core point still stands. Unlike the extremely rare Concorde, if there were a critical flaw in the 737's design we should be seeing similar incidents and accidents all over the world by similarly aged/operated aircraft.
 
cpotisch said:
Devil's Advocate said:
The 737 family is the world's most popular mainline commercial aircraft
Click to expand...
I thought it's now the A320...
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By March of this year, a total of 8,074 A320 family planes have been built, while the 10,000th 737 family plane was delivered in March this year. So no, it will take the 320 family many years to catch up.
 
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Devil's Advocate said:
Unlike the extremely rare Concorde, if there were a critical flaw in the 737's design we should be seeing similar incidents and accidents all over the world by similarly aged/operated aircraft.
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Yeah. The Concorde flew 700 mph faster and 20,000 feet higher than the 737. Concorde's windows took orders of magnitude more punishment than that of any normal airliner. So it would be total overkill to put those windows on a normal plane.
 

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