Re: Swissair 111 error in reporting
You caught the error. For those who didn't here is an explanation. Notice how the error effects perception. Here is the text clip: ...heat generated by the system made the hard drives hot enough to fail. 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. The reference here is to temperature rise, not absolute temperature. No doubt the author didn't know the difference and when he added the conversion in parentheses used a conversion table instead of a conversion factor. It should read (18 to 36 degrees Fahrenheit). The significance is 36 degrees F (rise) is within the manufactures limits but 68 degrees F (rise) is probably not. Putting it in terms that are a little easier to understand using the manufacture's data sheet to calculate maximum ambient temperature for the quoted rises, the cabin temp must be maintained at 63 F as the author wrote it. The correct maximum is 95F. I think the author has significantly distorted the perspective unless you never pay attention to temperature in Fahrenheit degrees. Fred Townsend Price, Ed wrote: Ed Price ed.pr...@cubic.com 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:f...@poasana.com] 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 ed.pr...@cubic.com 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
RE: Swissair 111
Ed Price ed.pr...@cubic.com 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:f...@poasana.com] 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 ed.pr...@cubic.com 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: majord...@ieee.org with the single line: unsubscribe emc-pstc For help, send mail to the list administrators: Ron Pickard: emc-p...@hypercom.com Dave Heald: davehe...@attbi.com For policy questions, send mail to: Richard Nute: ri...@ieee.org Jim Bacher: j.bac...@ieee.org 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
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 Ken Javor wrote: I drove from Huntsville, AL to Ft. Wayne, IN, today mostly because flying is such a pain these days. Now I'm glad I drove from a safety viewpoint as well. Seriously, there is something wrong if gov't oversight is necessary to make sure an aircraft is put together right. I think there is a very simple, very old fix for this problem. Accountability. They had it back in Babylon. The Code of Hammurabi. If an architect builds a house, and that house collapses and kills the owner, then the architect's life is also forfeit... on 2/18/03 7:50 PM, Gary McInturff at gary.mcintu...@worldwidepackets.com wrote: http://www.usatoday.com/travel/news/2003/2003-02-17-swissair.htm --- 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: majord...@ieee.org with the single line: unsubscribe emc-pstc For help, send mail to the list administrators: Ron Pickard: emc-p...@hypercom.com Dave Heald: davehe...@attbi.com For policy questions, send mail to: Richard Nute: ri...@ieee.org Jim Bacher: j.bac...@ieee.org 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 -- Ken Javor EMC Compliance Huntsville, Alabama 256/650-5261 --- 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: majord...@ieee.org with the single line: unsubscribe emc-pstc For help, send mail to the list administrators: Ron Pickard: emc-p...@hypercom.com Dave Heald: davehe...@attbi.com For policy questions, send mail to: Richard Nute: ri...@ieee.org Jim Bacher: j.bac...@ieee.org 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 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: majord...@ieee.org with the single line: unsubscribe emc-pstc For help, send mail to the list administrators: Ron Pickard: emc-p...@hypercom.com Dave Heald: davehe...@attbi.com For policy questions, send mail to: Richard Nute: ri...@ieee.org Jim Bacher: j.bac...@ieee.org 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
