Posted on 10/03/2005 2:23:22 PM PDT by Paul Ross
A380 jet flawed, fired worker alleges ,br> Seattle Times 10/02/05
author: Los Angeles Times, Peter Pae
(Copyright 2005)
VIENNA -- Ever since the Mangans gave up their comfortable house in Kansas City and moved here a year ago, the family has been living in a kind of suspended animation.
SNIP
Mangan alleges that flaws in a microprocessor could cause the valves that maintain cabin pressure on the A380 to accidentally open during flight, allowing oxygen to leak out so rapidly that everyone aboard could lose consciousness within seconds.
It's a lethal scenario similar to the 1999 crash that killed professional golfer Payne Stewart and five others when their Learjet lost cabin pressure and they blacked out. The plane flew on autopilot for hours before crashing in South Dakota.
Mangan was chief engineer for TTTech Computertechnik, a Viennese company that supplies the computer chips and software to control the cabin-pressurization system for the A380, which is being assembled at the Airbus plant in France.
Last October, TTTech fired Mangan and filed civil and criminal charges against him for revealing company documents, arguing the information was proprietary and he had no right to disclose it to anyone.
(Excerpt) Read more at seattletimes.nwsource.com ...
ping
So, anyone for the maiden voyages? You first!
Oh, no, after you my friend. I insist!
If it ain't Boeing, I ain't going.
airbus=yugo's with wings
If that's really a problem with the plane it's one that can be easily fixed. Jets that large don't lose their cabin pressure instantaneously anyway unless there's a loss of structural integrity like the Hawaiian Air flight that lost the top of the fuselage.
Frankly I've heard there are far more serious issues with this plane than the one in the article. There are major questions about the design of the landing gear and whether or not the hydraulic system is adequate for the job.
Do the wheels turn sideways like the one that landed at LAX?
Aloha.
Exactly! I've only flown on an Airbus product once..and that one time was due to a last minute schedule change over which I had no control.
Correct. Thanks.
If Mangan worked for Boeing and made these allegations how would this play out?
The FAA reviews the design and says OK. End of story?
Design wise not the public relations end.
Yes they do face penalties and Singapore Airlines has already taken them to court. They face cancellations if there are any further delays.
After reading the story I don't think Boeing would design a plane this way. The 380 has no manual backup for this system which I find odd. The pilots have absolutely no control over this system in the event of a malfunction. Boeing doesn't follow that philosophy.
Not true.
From the limited info here, I'm putting my money "he's a whack job," although I'm sure many conspiracy minded Freepers back him.
Ahem... that is a FEATURE. It was specifically requested by an Airbus client, one Mr. JF Kerry .
Then why does Boeing do it with triple-chip-alternating redundancy?
The Boeing 777, for example, has cabin-pressure chips made by Motorola, Intel and Advanced Micro Devices. Most jetliners also have a manual override so that the pilot can take control in an emergency.
Airbus has acknowledged that its designers faced challenges as they attempted to reduce the A380's weight. The company elected to go with four outflow valves on the A380, with only one motor on each valve, which are slightly larger than a cabin window. Each motor uses a TTTech controller chip, and there is no backup manual-override system.
"Just there, I would not be happy," said Chris Lomax, a retired engineer who helped design the cabin-pressurization systems for Boeing's 737 and 747. "If all four valves [on the A380] were driven wide open, it would be nip and tuck for the crew to get their [oxygen] mask on and begin a descent..."
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