- Reaction score
- 551
- Points
- 810
SeaKingTacco said:
I'm pretty sure I did Nav training before you... I was the fourth course on the CT-142.
Urban legend has it that the Hercs used to carry a vacuum cleaner hose to plug into the sextant mount and clean up the cockpit when they were bored. As the legend goes a stop was put to it when they realized they were abrading the leading edge of the tail plane with whatever garbage they were sucking out...
But yes, it seems a lot of people (probably based on Hollywood) equate a little hole in tn the fuselage with a structural failure.
I did a really quick look at the NTSB database at https://www.ntsb.gov/_layouts/ntsb.aviation/index.aspx Searching for decompression I got 72 results; given that we don't here about them all I would assume most of them are not "dramatic." A random pick of two 737 ones gives no injuries in 131 on board (https://app.ntsb.gov/pdfgenerator/ReportGeneratorFile.ashx?EventID=20090714X83900&AKey=1&RType=HTML&IType=FA) and 1 minor injury in 122 on board (https://app.ntsb.gov/pdfgenerator/ReportGeneratorFile.ashx?EventID=20110401X24330&AKey=1&RType=HTML&IType=MA). However, these were structural failures from manufacturing and maintenance errors resulting in holes 18X12" and 60X8"; given that, I would believe that a tiny hole from a bullet wouldn't even result in a rapid decompression, and that the skin wouldn't tear, unless it hit a critical structural piece or system.
For comparison, here is an example of a structural failure which Hollywood wants to make every little hole into: https://app.ntsb.gov/pdfgenerator/ReportGeneratorFile.ashx?EventID=20001213X25439&AKey=1&RType=HTML&IType=MA with the full report with pictures at http://libraryonline.erau.edu/online-full-text/ntsb/aircraft-accident-reports/AAR89-03.pdf. Google "Aloha Airlines Flight 243" for more and in color. Again caused by maintenance technique.
</Sarcasm> Lesson is I'd be more afraid of the tech's drinking at the hotel before working on the aircraft then the TASO drinking at the hotel before carrying his gun. </End Sarcasm>
), when asked how much pressure their starship can take: "Well, it is designed for space travel, so I would say one atmosphere". At lower altitudes than space, the difference is even less than one atmosphere. So, a 9mm hole in the fuselage is not going to decompress the plane so fast everybody gets sucked in the hole. It's going to be slow process, and can probably be blocked by sticking your cell phone over the hole - or anything sufficiently rigid. Similarly, larger holes will cause the decompression to go faster, but at the expense of the "suction" effect, which would then be lower (Hollywood always misses that one: the bigger the hole, the lower the suction - at least from decompression).
