Thanks to a good solid reading of apocalypse literature, I look for falling aircraft every time I see a flash and don't immediately know the cause.

That, or a gamma ray burst, but that will strip away the atmosphere and boil away the oceans.

OOOoooo... pray that never happens!

V.

Nothing you can do about it but pray, if we're honest.

so true...

V.

It's a good story. Using anecdotes and personal experience to adorn the tale and point a moral. It's also a timely story, with the Boeing Max 8 kerfuffle still going on.

Well, if this the case, can't wait to see airplanes flying down. Who knows what will happen.

*chuckles (old radio show) 'the Shadow knows'...

we live it one day at a time Blue...

V.

I'm a realist and have watched the changes over the last thirty years... They are alarming to me, because the pilot has less and less direct control over the aircraft. You are right about what happens if there is an EMP... the FAA doesn't care about the possible loss of life so long as their FARs a adhered to. Then they go after the builder of said aircraft when it falls out of the sky.

I really enjoyed reading this... Oh my aircraft will be fly by wire... 7x7 3/32 and 1/8 steel aircraft cable!

mine would be too!

V.

You don't need EMP, look at all the planes that went down in WWII.

Bunners

so very true - but a different time altogether...

*hugs...

V.

Your diagnostic stories remind me of the time I had an '86 Dodge Lancer. One day I was driving down the road and the car (engine) lurched like the ignition was cut off for a second and then continued on it's merry way. Then it started missing for a few minutes after I would fire it up in the morning. After it did that a couple mornings in the same week plus a "lurching" incident or two, I figured it was about time to pay a visit to the dealer (it was under warranty, but not by much).

I took it in and they called me in the afternoon and said it was ready. I asked what they found and was told "we checked the code and put it on the machine (scope) and couldn't find anything." You can see where this is going.... A couple weeks later I took it in again with the same result. The problem continued, of course, but by this time I had figured out that an injector was sticking. Sure enough, one Saturday morning (when I had time to troubleshoot) it did the missing thing again. I got out of the car, covered the tailpipe with my hand for a second or two, and it smelled like gasoline. Ah HA! An injector is sticking open. Now which one? I popped the hood and started pulling plug wires until there was no difference in engine operation. I pulled the spark plug on #4 cylinder and it was soaking wet. I'd suspected that after the third time the engine "lurched" at highway speeds and my mind started putting two and two together. If you've ever had an 855 Cummins injector stick while running down the road in a tractor-trailer, you'd know what I mean.

I took it back to the dealer the following Monday and asked for the service manager. When he appeared, I asked him to look up what they had done on my previous visits and he recited what I already knew. I let him have it with both barrels "The reason why you never found the problem is because it's NOT and ELECTRICAL problem, it's a MECHANICAL problem. Number 4 injector is sticking OPEN when the engine is cold in the morning and occasionally at highway speeds. Keep the car as long as you want because I don't want to see it again until it's really fixed!"

Two days later I get a call that the car is ready. The service manager met me when I arrived and handed me the key and paperwork. I asked "What did you do?" He said "Replaced the #4 injector." I turned around and, warranty or no, haven't darkened their door in the 30 years since.

Now ask me what I think about driver-less cars and I'll tell you it's going to be trial lawyer's holiday - Which component manufacturer are you going to sue when the car kills someone?

Good story and a very good point... but then again, will they have an AI court by then just for that purpose?

*smiles...

V.

Good question. LOL

I left something out of my description, that brief cessation of power was accompanied by the loudest engine knock you'd ever want to hear.

Actually, it goes far beyond the components of those vehicles. Here's a 4 minute video that explains how much murkier the subject really is.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixIoDYVfKA0

You are absolutely correct. It's not just component failure, It's "logic" failure.

I really like the interesting bits concerning how modern large aircraft are controlled. But more than that, this brings to mind the way humans accept risk in their societies. As an example, think about cars.

Who can imagine our world without cars? But go back two hundred years when the fastest and farthest you could go was limited to how far your horse or ship could take you. Explain to someone living in that time that we have machines that can take us much faster and farther over land than any horse possibly could and they would probably be envious.

Then casually mention that because each machine is controlled by a human who may or may not be capable of handling that machine properly, we have horrific wrecks every single day that kill dozens and maim hundreds. EVERY SINGLE DAY.

Add to that the ridiculous costs involved in buying, fueling, maintaining, insuring and repairing those machines. Throw in the results of decades of burned hydrocarbons and oil drilling (and spilling), the changes in our culture that breed stupid things like road rage and numerous forms of bad, dangerous driving caused by emotional turmoil.

People from two hundred years ago would look at you in profound dismay and likely proclaim every single one of us insane.

Are we insane? Nope. We're addicted. We reached this point one day, one accident, one road trip, one multi-car pile up at a time. Most of us can't imagine living without our cars. Two hundred years ago, they probably can't imagine anyone stupid enough to live WITH them.

Yet here we are.

Planes... yeah, no one wants a totally autonomous planes. Yet we're nearly there already anyway. Lots of people are nervous about driver-less cars. Yet we're approaching the tipping point on that without stopping.

Two hundred years from now, you might see a news feed that relates the tragic accident on a space ship headed to Mars that apparently lost it's navigational computer and wound up off course for deep space, dooming its passengers to a slow, inevitable death. And those who see that feed might think, "Yeah, that's bad. But could you imagine living without the ability to hop on a transport and go see your relatives living on Mars?"

We'll get to those places. We'll shake our heads sadly at the blood and loss at each step. But we'll keep heading out and up and away, one dangerous step at a time.

We always do.

and that is an exact truth...

V.

The inevitable march of progress (and time) inches forward one step at a time.
And like you said, one day it will be 200 years from now and everyone will only see the everyday conveniences that surround them that are not even possible today.

Yep. All the nopes about this, and about driverless cars, too. The computers they want to put in a car can't even tell the difference between a truck and a moose; are they going to react to a ball rolling into the street? Will they sacrifice the car if a child runs out? And what if it's a rabbit? Can it tell the difference? Of course not.

*chuckles... we shall see...

V.

“The basic electronic flight controls all had a mechanical backup.”

There’s something really profound about this statement. It hearkens to a mindset of ensuring functionality in all conditions rather than a phobia of redundancy or lack of efficiency.

I guess this is why part of society is fascinated with steampunk and another part with cyberpunk. Both have the ability to tackle the ups and down of mechanical and electronic cultures in a way that entertains but can also challenge a mind to think through pitfalls otherwise ignored.

good to be seeing you Onic...

V.

I recall reading about an A320 I think it was, airbus anyhoo, they were flying a PR zoom and boom and so the pilot wanted to do a low pass, zoom the crowd and barrel off on up again. so they put it in 'landing ' mode to allow them to get that close to the ground. so the came around, zoomed the runway at some handful of feet, and at the end of the runway the pilot wanted to pull out, but the plane said ' no, we're landing now' the pilot lost and the plane went into the trees at the end of the runway. No one had thought to program "showing off mode' in the flight control code. Thankfully they fixed that bug, or Captain Sully would have had a different ending to that story.

and that's all true...

I think the doomed flight is on youtube...

V.

In the year of my birth, there was a commercial airliner that cruises at mach 2, there was a spy plane the cruised at mach 4, men were walking around on the moon, and they used a 4 register 1MHz computer to do it, there was no internet, and there was no such thing as autoCAD. Today about every human has instant access to gigaflop computing, unlimited information , and yet all we do with it is watch what the Kardashians are doing and it takes 5 hours to fly to reno...

*laughs... all true and all so very ironic isn't it? My personal prediction for the turn of the century was a vertical take off and landing commercial aircraft the size of a B737... that never happened either.

V.

I will conceed spacex is at least trying ;) a techno sweat shop, but trying.

I hope they make it to Mars...

V.

Ah yes..back in the days of "less is more" :)
Or more like scientists and engineers figured out ways to push existing mech and tech beyond what everyone considered limitations.
Perhaps when we get into the space exploration phase, there will be another boom in innovative thinking.

Planes are ready for EMP's, you just have to hope the airline you're flying with has purchased the EMP quick boot micro-transaction.

now that's interesting... I've never heard or seen anything about that. Also, after Flight 800 was shot down, I heard Al Gore (with my own ears) after the meeting he chaired, that all commercial aircraft should install anti-missile technology. Then you never heard another thing about it and we were told Flight 800 was not shot down (massive cover up on a grand scale). Technology is expensive - People not so much.

V.

Indeed, I'm sure the folks of the MH17 would have appreciated anti-missile tech. I digress, according to an article I read just after Ethiopia Air was shut down, there was apparently some software that would adjust the sensors in the event the autopilot started to malfunction. The software wasn't included as part of the package of the plane, meaning the airline needed to purchase it from Boeing for a hefty price. Apparently, this sort of thing is becoming common place in the airline industry. Awfully concerning to be honest.

it is concerning, and a common practice...

V.

*smiles... oh yes... old story and pretty well true. We actually have some pilots come in and write up systems on an aircraft that are not even there.

V.

I couldn't help but think about how all vehicular crafts and transportation vectors have changed over the years to this new "automated" or "computerized" systems. It takes an act of Congress to self diagnose issues when back then it was simple! What's scary is automated planes, but even scarier is automated vehicles! *shivers* Human error will never be as catastrophic as technological glitches, malfunctions or crashes, let alone providing the ample means to completely subjugate everything in our lives with something as simple as an EMP or another attack!

Well wrote, Vixxy! Truer words were never spoken!

thank you so very much...

V.

Oh goodness, that's absolutely crazy! As much as I love robots and the sci fi, but I'm VERY leery about automated systems, and I do not like electronics for the sake of electronics. Futuristic, to me, is finding the right balance between existing technologies at that point in time. Upgrading for the sake of upgrading is an effort in futility clothed in materialism.

me... I'm an old timer. I don't care for anything that leaves me 'not' in control...

V.

Well lol as the relative youngster here, I have to say I'm inclined to agree with you. I don't trust putting my well being in the hands of something designed by someone else that is subject to mechanical wear & tear, with no method for the actual operators to take over control if needed.

Observation... Boeing 737 Max Nuff said. THE COLONEL

Bingo - that and pick an Air Bus product... good to see you Colonel...

V.

Thanks for the reminder that "improvements" to flight operations are not always the best. I would think that having triple redundancies on giant metal tubes that soar thru the air filled with people would be a REQUIREMENT...but hey, what do I know. The engineering marvel of actually being able to fly in the air, miles above the Earth, could of course only be matched by man's desire to make it faster, cheaper, and more profitable.

and that is a fact...

V.