On 13 Sep 2001, at 23:26, Bob George wrote:
>"Bernie" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
>> [...]
>> BTW: Thinking this was bad? Picture that they had set out to hit nuclear
>> plants instead. Only one good hit on one would be much more devastating.
>
>That thought crossed my mind, but then I recalled having read something
>years ago that nuclear plants (or at least some) are specifically designed
>to withstand a direct hit by an airliner.
>
>That said, I saw a report this evening that mentioned that the World Trade
>Center had been designed to withstand a direct hit by a 707.
>
>Still, my gut feeling is that the nuke plant would probably have remained
>intact, whilst the WTC had no chance.
>
>- Bob
Well, I don't know about the WTC's particular design standards, but I
do know that all skyscrapers have been designed to withstand aircraft
crashes since the crash of a B-25 into the Empire State Building in
1945. That was an impact of about a ten-ton aircraft at 250km/h or so,
and the Empire State survived.
Here's some calculation I did (with help from my SurvPC!) for another
message I sent out.
======================
Doing some quick figuring, with help of information from Boeing's WWW
site: (http://www.boeing.com/commercial/) [ Note: numbers are
rounded to no more than 3 significant figures ]
Max. Mass of a 767-200 (smallest model) at takeoff: 179,000kg
Max. Fuel of a 767-200: 90,000
Cruising speed of a 767-200: 850km/h @35,000ft.
Energy release of 2000 lbs TNT: 4.18 * 10^9 Joules
The kinetic energy of impact will be: 0.5 * mass * (velocity^2)
=0.5 * (150000) * ( ( 800 * 1000 / 3600 ) ^ 2 )
[mass reduced to account for fuel use during flight]
[velocity reduced slightly from cruise, for lower altitude]
= 3.70 * 10^9 Joules
Dividing by the energy release of TNT:
= (3.70 * 10 ^ 9 ) / ( 4.18 * 10 ^ 9 )
= 0.886 tons of TNT, equivalent energy release
is almost a TON of TNT - equivalent energy release. This is from the
impact _alone_, and ignores the effects of 75,000+ liters of aviation
fuel.
====================
I suspect that the increase in size of aircraft over the last two
decades was never planned for by the builders of the WTC, or most
nuclear power plants. On the other hand, by far the greatest number of
aircraft crashes and deaths are in small, single or twin-engine aicraft
with less than eight passengers, and I'm sure that those buildings
would withstand the impact of a light plane well enough.
Sincerely,
Anthony J. Albert
===========================================================
Anthony J. Albert [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Systems and Software Support Specialist Postmaster
Computer Services - University of Maine, Presque Isle
"Civilization is just a slow process of learning to
be kind." - Charles L. Lucas
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