Before a plane can carry passengers, the manufacturer has to convince regulators (the FAA in America, the EASA in Europe) that the plane is safe. To earn an “airworthiness certificate”, the manufacturer has to prove both that:
This belt-and-suspenders approach to safety should be very reassuring to the nervous flyer.
The simplest way to test that things will almost never go wrong is to fly. A lot. In different ways. They fly it to cold airports. They fly it to hot airports. They fly it on short flights. They fly it on long flights. From rainy airports. From desert airports. One flight, two flight, red flight, blue flight. For the new 787, one test pilot alone hit 1000 hours flying. But that’s the boring part: getting to fly a plane without worrying about passenger delays or baggage must be pleasant.
The interesting, confidence-inspiring part is testing failures. If a cupholder fails, the plane should still be flyable. If the engines fail, obviously the plane is no longer flyable, but it should still be landable. I’ll tell you about some of the awe-inspiring, crazy things they do to airplanes before you or I are ever allowed to step foot onboard.
- things will almost never go wrong
- when they do go wrong, it’s in the safest way possible.
This belt-and-suspenders approach to safety should be very reassuring to the nervous flyer.
The simplest way to test that things will almost never go wrong is to fly. A lot. In different ways. They fly it to cold airports. They fly it to hot airports. They fly it on short flights. They fly it on long flights. From rainy airports. From desert airports. One flight, two flight, red flight, blue flight. For the new 787, one test pilot alone hit 1000 hours flying. But that’s the boring part: getting to fly a plane without worrying about passenger delays or baggage must be pleasant.
The interesting, confidence-inspiring part is testing failures. If a cupholder fails, the plane should still be flyable. If the engines fail, obviously the plane is no longer flyable, but it should still be landable. I’ll tell you about some of the awe-inspiring, crazy things they do to airplanes before you or I are ever allowed to step foot onboard.
No comments:
Post a Comment