Ed Price [email protected] Electromagnetic Compatibility Lab Cubic Defense Systems San Diego, CA USA 858-505-2780 (Voice) 858-505-1583 (Fax) Military & Avionics EMC Is Our Specialty Shake-Bake-Shock - Metrology - Reliability Analysis >-----Original Message----- >From: Fred Townsend [mailto:[email protected]] >Sent: Wednesday, February 19, 2003 12:42 AM >To: Ken Javor >Cc: Gary McInturff; EMC-PSTC (E-mail) >Subject: Re: Swissair 111 - long winded even by my standards but an >interesting article > > > >Scary! I squirmed in my seat as I read the article. You see I did the >electrical design part of a similar system. Our system had a >critical design >flaw. It was a mechanical error so I was not responsible for >the error but it >could have crashed the airplane. Luckily we did not use a >contractor for >certification. We submitted straight to the FAA. The FAA >spotted the problem >and it was soon fixed. It makes me wonder what would have >happened if we used a >contractor to certify. > >In another vein, did anyone else pick up the error in the >article? It related to >the disk drive. It probably was the reporter's error. I see >errors of this >kind so frequently when you have a journalist or English major >writing about >scientific issues. They are not equipped to do the job. > >Fred Townsend Do you mean: "Aboard an airplane, the hard drives would probably get 10-20 degrees Celsius (50 to 68 degrees Fahrenheit) hotter than in a laboratory, he said." I just assumed that it was the reporter having a problem with arithmetic. I was more interested in the comment that the heat rise "observed in the laboratory" would probably have been even hotter in a real installation. So why didn't they get a typical seat, stick it in an altitude chamber, and find out what the heat rise really was? I'm not very familiar with the certification process for adding a gadget to an aircraft. But, it seems to me that the aircraft modifiers, like SBA, are supposed to use only accepted or certified parts in the modification. It seems like there's a gap, from the time that the manufacturer's first FAA consultant bailed out of the job, and the time when SBA started installing the systems onto aircraft. I didn't see anywhere in the story that the entertainment systems were ever "certified" or whatever they call it, to be used by anyone. Ed Ed Price [email protected] Electromagnetic Compatibility Lab Cubic Defense Systems San Diego, CA USA 858-505-2780 (Voice) 858-505-1583 (Fax) Military & Avionics EMC Is Our Specialty Shake-Bake-Shock - Metrology - Reliability Analysis This message is from the IEEE EMC Society Product Safety Technical Committee emc-pstc discussion list. Visit our web site at: http://www.ewh.ieee.org/soc/emcs/pstc/ To cancel your subscription, send mail to: [email protected] with the single line: unsubscribe emc-pstc For help, send mail to the list administrators: Ron Pickard: [email protected] Dave Heald: [email protected] For policy questions, send mail to: Richard Nute: [email protected] Jim Bacher: [email protected] Archive is being moved, we will announce when it is back on-line. All emc-pstc postings are archived and searchable on the web at: http://www.ieeecommunities.org/emc-pstc
