dgb@mgwess.UUCP (Donald Beahm) (09/20/85)
I don't remember all of the info on this airplane, however it has been written up in the action/information section of the 'Chicago Sun-Times' a few times. It seems this craft was grounded for many airworthiness directives against it and others of its type. It turned out to be far to costly to make airworthy and flyable and has been left to the ravages of time and decay. Don Beahm AT&T-IS
wombat@ccvaxa.UUCP (10/05/85)
I had always heard that the problem with the Comet I was the windows. They had sharp corners, unlike the rounded windows you see on airliners today. This gets nasty once you repeatedly subject the airframe to stresses, since forces love to concentrate on anything that deviates from the basic flat plate, or tube, or sphere, especially 90-degree angles right in the middle of the side. Increased stress leads to increased strain leads to shorter time to failure, and you fall out of the sky. It was used as a example (as was the ever-popular Tacoma Narrows bridge), in a general engineering lecture and later an aircraft structures course, of how not to design something. "When you are about to die, a wombat is better than no company at all." Roger Zelazny, *Doorways in the Sand* Wombat ihnp4!uiucdcs!ccvaxa!wombat
rjn@hpfcla.UUCP (10/05/85)
re: Comet (airliner) and Nimrod (naval patrol) It's an interesting coincidence that the Lockheed Electra airliner (which also suffered crashes due to a design defect) is still in production as the P3 Orion naval patrol plane. Regards, Hewlett-Packard Bob Niland 3404 East Harmony Road hplabs!hpfcla!rjn Fort Collins CO 80525
rees@apollo.uucp (Jim Rees) (10/15/85)
I used to work on flight controls for the P3 Orion, and as far as I know, they haven't been in production for years. They are still in use, though, and will be for quite a while. I don't know if any Electras are still in civilian use or not.
john@gcc-bill.ARPA (John Allred) (10/15/85)
In article <2987015c.1de6@apollo.uucp> rees@apollo.uucp (Jim Rees) writes: >I used to work on flight controls for the P3 Orion, and as far as >I know, they haven't been in production for years. They are still >in use, though, and will be for quite a while. I don't know if >any Electras are still in civilian use or not. After checking the latest Navy budget in Aviation Week, the Navy is definitely still buying P-3s. Unless they're pulling them out of storage, the production line must still be rolling. -- John Allred General Computer Company uucp: seismo!harvard!gcc-bill!john
dave@onfcanim.UUCP (Dave Martindale) (10/16/85)
In article <2987015c.1de6@apollo.uucp> rees@apollo.uucp (Jim Rees) writes: >I don't know if >any Electras are still in civilian use or not. There is at least one that was providing scheduled air service in Canada's Northwest Territories as of a year ago - it's probably still flying. There are LOTS of DC-3's still around that part of the world too.
brent@poseidon.UUCP (Brent P. Callaghan) (10/16/85)
>I used to work on flight controls for the P3 Orion, and as far as >I know, they haven't been in production for years. They are still >in use, though, and will be for quite a while. I don't know if >any Electras are still in civilian use or not. A Lockheed Electra crashed on takeoff at Reno, Nevada last year. Weren't the original series of crashes attributed to the wing falling off ? -- Made in New Zealand --> Brent Callaghan AT&T Information Systems, Lincroft, NJ {ihnp4|mtuxo|pegasus}!poseidon!brent (201) 576-3475
scw@ucla-cs.UUCP (10/22/85)
In article <1305@poseidon.UUCP> brent@poseidon.UUCP (Brent P. Callaghan) writes: >>I used to work on [...] be for quite a while. I don't know if >>any Electras are still in civilian use or not. > >A Lockheed Electra crashed on takeoff at Reno, Nevada last year. > >Weren't the original series of crashes attributed to the >wing falling off ? Actually the crashes were due to harmonic feedback between the engines and the wing at a very specific engine speed. The fix was simple, they added about 80 pounds of weight at the front of the nacelles which changed the frequency that they would cycle at. The problem was solved when an Electra had the cycle start just as the pilot pulled the throttles to begin a letdown. The NTSB said that the wing/engine on that aircraft completed only 3-4 cycles of the swing before the engine passed out of the critical speed range. In those few cycles the wing popped about 45% of the skin rivets and bent the Main spar almost 2 inches. The wing on the electra was ALMOST exactly the same as the wing on the C-130 the major difference is that the engines on the C-130 are mounted underneth the wing and the L-188 engines are mounted above the wing.
rl@ucsfcgl.UUCP (Robert Langridge%CGL) (10/28/85)
There is a Comet at London Gatwick near the usual taxiway into the new terminal. The aircraft is white, labelled "TRAINING" in large letters and has the outer 50% of each wing removed. In the October "Airport" (a Heathrow/Gatwick freebie - "The World's First Pre-Flight Magazine" - it says so on the cover) it is noted that a pair of kestrels and their five young lived in the wing root of this aircraft for a while, but have now departed, "...presumably heading for higher horizons". The Comet is unlikely to follow. Bob Langridge ...ucbvax!ucsfcgl!rl (UUCP) Computer Graphics Laboratory rl@ucsf-cgl (ARPA) University of California +1 415 666 2630 San Francisco CA 94143 +1 415 666 1540