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Old May 14th 07, 11:04 PM posted to rec.aviation.piloting
Matt Whiting
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Posts: 2,232
Default Your opinion on this landing

Jose wrote:
However, the claim was that the wing was perfectly uniformly strong
and would fail along its entire extent. I claim it will fail in one
location.


No, the claim was =not= that it was perfectly uniformly strong.
The claim was that the strength varied along the length with the
expected loads, so that a failure would be (roughly) equally likely
anywhere along the wing. "Perfection" was not claimed, just "pretty
close".

The video =I= saw showed the wing seem to snap at all places at once.
I'm sure slowed-down photography would show a first break and a second
break and all, but it did seem to just explode along its entire length.

Yes, I saw the bent spar.

Then you saw the point failure which I claim is how a wing will always
fail.


Yes. This is different from the video I saw (which BTW did not show an
"after" picture where such a failure point would be seen anyway).

Maybe you're right. I'm not an engineer. It just seemed very close.


I am an engineer, and the kind of failure you at first described has in
infinitesimal chance of occurring.

Matt