Calilasseia wrote:They're also built to stay airborne even after suffering a fair amount of damage. Apparently, it's possible to land one safely with just one engine operational, up to 20% of the wing area gone, and half the tail missing. Though most pilots would rather not have their skills tested to that extent.
However, the cargo bay doors are a potential trouble spot. Boeing opted for outward opening cargo bay doors to maximise loading capacity, and the mechanism they chose to keep the doors sealed has been demonstrated to be, er, less than optimal. This was discovered the hard way on United Airlines Flight 811.
However, the largest number of hull losses has been due to terrorist bombs, and Boeing can hardly be held to account for this. Incorrect maintenance (again, not the fault of Boeing) caused the Japan Air Lines Flight 123 crash, and the Tenerife Air Disaster resulted from a combination of factors, including impatience on the part of Captain Van Zanten aboard the KLM aircraft, and inadequate facilities for handling large wide-body jets at Los Rodeos International Airport, a location that was also heavily afflicted by fog.
Nor I suspect do any passengers want to find out.
That reminds of when the Luftwaffe was testing the giant Messerschmitt Me 321 transport glider, being towed by 3 twin-engined Messerschmitt Bf 110 fighters. Needless to say, this arrangement was extremely risky, and a test resulted in the lost of all four aircraft and crew ... and full complement of 120 troops.
Why were the troops risked during the test?
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