Ed Dartford
Well-Known Member
On can no longer say that explosive destruction of turbofan engines is a rare event. Had another one today. Fortunately today's event did not speed damage to hydraulic systems or penetrate the cabin. But consider what happened to the QANTAS A380, a much larger engine. As an engineer myself I call on the industry to review the design criteria for the very large engines. At one time containment structure was provided around the heavy rotating parts, but the new engines have such huge fans that no structure could contain breakup. Maybe four smaller engines would be better..
When I was in college the dean reminded us that, as a profession, engineering has a moral duty to provide safe machines, not just high performance ones. I have never forgotten that guidance. As an extreme example...Even in the design of missile guidance systems great attention was always given to never arming the nuclear weapon unless there is every inflight indication that the missile will accurately strike the intended target and nowhere else..
When I was in college the dean reminded us that, as a profession, engineering has a moral duty to provide safe machines, not just high performance ones. I have never forgotten that guidance. As an extreme example...Even in the design of missile guidance systems great attention was always given to never arming the nuclear weapon unless there is every inflight indication that the missile will accurately strike the intended target and nowhere else..
