On the Today show yesterday morning, right after the now-daily gun control segment and ritual Invoking of the Dead Kids, the anchorette immediately segued to "...and the latest news about Boeing's 787 so-called 'Dreamliner'," her scorn quotes almost palpable.
I'm wondering if she would also say "Ford's so-called 'Taurus'"? Like firearms and airplanes, it too is made in smoke-filled corporate boardrooms by fat white guys in top hats, holding bags of money and blowing dollar-sign-shaped smoke rings from their cigars. (While the newsreader's payroll checks for her seven figure salary get cut on 100% recycled hemp paper by the organic locavore neighborhood media co-op.)
How does an airliner with an overheating battery get more play than the crushing debt and lousy economy?
ReplyDeleteThe so-called "press" hasn't done their job in, what? 30 years? I have no idea how you're BP stays anywhere near in check while watching that stuff. You need hazard pay.
I don't watch any of NBC's "so-called news" shows.
ReplyDeleteBram,
ReplyDeleteThe TV has to be on to that channel.
I wander in if I hear they're doing the now-every-morning gun control segment.
Watching TeeWee is what us mindless sheeple who don't read tend to do, anyway.
I work out in the evenings - one of the gym TV's is locked on CNN. Seeing Piers Morgan's smug face - even without sound - gives me a little extra rage when I'm tired.
ReplyDeleteGE the makers of the engines for the 787.
ReplyDeleteGE the owners of NBC.
Seems like someone is biting the hands that feed them.
The battery thing is a bit puzzling, after well over a million test hours of flawless functioning. Should be easy enough to isolate though.
ReplyDeleteRemember that "Deathtrap" the V-22 Osprey? Better availability and accident record than any helicopter now, with one fourth the maintenence hours. Also twice the speed, twice the range, and twice the payload per pound of bird. It makes anything flying in somebody else's Air Farce obsolescent at best. Odd that isn't mentioned in the media anymore.
All it needed was less aggressive pilots with enough hours to get muscle memory. Not the easiest thing to find in the Marine Corps, I admit. I remember how proud some of the Airdales were back at Point Mugu when the word came out that the Marine Corps had a crash rate three times that of the Air Force, due to always pushing the edge of the envelope.
It seems the early Osprey pilots discovered they could get a faster transition time if they windvaned into the prevailing breeze. Ooorah!
But if said breeze failed at 50 feet AGL......
The 787 fuel dump was pilot error, and the smoke seems to be entirely battery related. What unforseen combination of maintenence glitches, flight cycles, pressure, vibration, God only knows what, should yield to investigation in a matter of hours, not weeks or months. This stuff is TOTALLY documented. I've spent half of the last 35 years doing aerospace Q.C., and I'm more than familiar with the documentation.
I'd be willing to bet my lucky florin that it turns out to be bad maintainence. Mechanics have a learning curve too.
But that would be good news, wouldn't it? And good news doesn't sell. Mr. Hearst is still alive and well in the hearts of the broadcast boffins in midtown Manhattan.
And the answer is:
ReplyDeleteUnion-Controlled NLRB issues complaint against Boeing for transferring work to a non-union facility
Gerry
There's the so-called "media," all those so-called "journalists" on the so-called "job."
ReplyDeleteDid Boeing piss-off the Administration so much by attempting to relocate to a free state?
ReplyDeleteI can't turn on the TV until it's night-time.
Ed Foster said...
ReplyDeleteAll it needed was less aggressive pilots with enough hours to get muscle memory. Not the easiest thing to find in the Marine Corps, I admit
Yep, us Marines tend to be a bit hard headed. Semper Fi.
What about the stories after deployment about the issues with the weaponry and not having a rear gun to cover the loading ramp? I had also read that it couldn't handle a full combat load with a full personnel load.
ReplyDeleteWere those not really issues to begin with or have they been worked around?
Not being sarcastic or picky, I had just heard those after the whole "It crashes all the time" died down.
"Well I coulda been an actor but I wound up here.
ReplyDeleteI just have to look good, I don't have to be clear"
@Woodman,
ReplyDeleteThe 46 doesn't have a dedicated gun on the ramp either. Bolting on a pintle isn't that big of a deal. The deal with the Osprey is due to the rotor movement it can't carry guns in the fuselage to engage to the sides.
I feel very confident that the same battery tech used so reliably in the Dreamliner will make future smart guns wonders of reliability...
(How hot does it have to get to ignite kydex?)
The truly laughable part is that the "so called dreamliner" is built by union labor in a city that is overwhelmingly democrat
ReplyDeleteNice job tits, you just scorned your own veiwerbase.
I swear the liberals eat their young.
"The truly laughable part is that the "so called dreamliner" is built by union labor in a city that is overwhelmingly democrat"
ReplyDeleteKind of like a Republican that expresses an asinine opinion on Rape or Abortion days before an election, but not as obvious and no one except for those union workers will ever care?
not sure i follow
ReplyDeleteI started with this well thought out reply to your comment talking about how Democrats talking about union errors is like Republicans talking about rape.
ReplyDeleteBut PEBCAK really.
Democrats talking about Corporate screwups = Republicans talking about Rape = bull looking at red flag. They don't think about the consequences of their statements, they must take a stand because look! Trigger issue! The D doesn't see the union, the R doesn't realize Anti Rape Pregnancy Hemoglobins don't really exist, and the Bull doesn't see the spear tip in the other hand.
Out of the three, the Democrat is the famous tree in the woods. If a Democrat says something really stupid and the press ignores him, did it really happen?
Woodman, Matthew:
ReplyDeleteOsprey could have side firing guns. You would just have to redesign to cut gunports aft of the wing, and restrict them from traversing forward or up. Think of the way a Blackhawk's guns are laid out.
But it is really far down teh design path to implement. Not having the drawings (the Airdale Engineers work across the river and down the road from us Kayak Kibbutzers), I can't even say if it would be possible as a retrofit to existing aircraft without practically rebuilding the fuselage. Certainly should be do-able for future builds.
'Tis a shame the USAF SOW/SAR version got axed. Nose gun. Sweet.