Boeing problems...

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[DHT]Osiris

Lifer
Dec 15, 2015
15,680
14,209
146
There has to be a first flight with people on board. Flying people is part of the certification process.
Weird, I always assumed 'test flights' were done with everything but the human, then they include the human after the tests are done.

Are those 'test plus human' still considered test?
 

sdifox

No Lifer
Sep 30, 2005
97,310
16,389
126
Weird, I always assumed 'test flights' were done with everything but the human, then they include the human after the tests are done.

Are those 'test plus human' still considered test?
Err there is a reason test pilots exist.
 

[DHT]Osiris

Lifer
Dec 15, 2015
15,680
14,209
146
Err there is a reason test pilots exist.
Well, a test pilot for a flight system that requires a pilot makes sense. Orbital flight vehicles don't require a pilot necessarily, they've been remote capable for what, decades? I can't fathom why your first fully assembled test flight of a system would include a human that can't affect change if anything goes wrong.
 

Zorba

Lifer
Oct 22, 1999
15,395
11,004
136
Well, a test pilot for a flight system that requires a pilot makes sense. Orbital flight vehicles don't require a pilot necessarily, they've been remote capable for what, decades? I can't fathom why your first fully assembled test flight of a system would include a human that can't affect change if anything goes wrong.
This isn't the first flight, it is the third flight and it is a test flight.

For the record, SpaceX also did a test flight with people and has also scrubbed launches of Crew Dragon.

BTW: This was an Atlas V problem, not a Boeing issue. Yet, Boeing still gets the shit for it. Why don't you complain about ULA/Lockheed Martin?
 
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[DHT]Osiris

Lifer
Dec 15, 2015
15,680
14,209
146
This isn't the first flight, it is the third flight and it is a test flight.

For the record, SpaceX also did a test flight with people and has also scrubbed launches of Crew Dragon.

BTW: This was an Atlas V problem, not a Boeing issue. Yet, Boeing still gets the shit for it. Why don't you complain about ULA/Lockheed Martin?
I wasn't aware they had multiple launches already, that's on me.

I'll complain about ULA/Lockheed when they demonstrate a cultural issue the way Boeing has. I shit on Boeing because Boeing decided to shit on engineers at some point in the last 20-30 years, and promote all the MBAs and marketing goons. ULA/Lockheed (and others) may have done the same, but it hasn't resulted in people dying.
 

Zorba

Lifer
Oct 22, 1999
15,395
11,004
136
I wasn't aware they had multiple launches already, that's on me.

I'll complain about ULA/Lockheed when they demonstrate a cultural issue the way Boeing has. I shit on Boeing because Boeing decided to shit on engineers at some point in the last 20-30 years, and promote all the MBAs and marketing goons. ULA/Lockheed (and others) may have done the same, but it hasn't resulted in people dying.
The O2 systems on Lockheed F-22 were giving pilots blood poisoning and making them pass out in flight resulting in at least one accident. The Lockheed F-16 is nicknamed "The Lawn Dart" because they crash so much.

This problem was an ULA problem, yet you blame Boeing instead of ULA. I'm guessing the Key Bridge failure was also Boeing's fault because Boeing paid them to ship some parts, just like Boeing is paying ULA to transport their capsule.

I'm not saying Boeing doesn't deserve some extra criticism right now, but right now it's just an emotional dog pile.
 

[DHT]Osiris

Lifer
Dec 15, 2015
15,680
14,209
146
The O2 systems on Lockheed F-22 were giving pilots blood poisoning and making them pass out in flight resulting in at least one accident. The Lockheed F-16 is nicknamed "The Lawn Dart" because they crash so much.

This problem was an ULA problem, yet you blame Boeing instead of ULA. I'm guessing the Key Bridge failure was also Boeing's fault because Boeing paid them to ship some parts, just like Boeing is paying ULA to transport their capsule.

I'm not saying Boeing doesn't deserve some extra criticism right now, but right now it's just an emotional dog pile.
Probably true, but thems the breaks. I didn't put the blood in the water. Enough emotional pressure and the next MBAs that come along might remember to not fire half their engineers.
 
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hal2kilo

Lifer
Feb 24, 2009
24,512
11,145
136
Weird, I always assumed 'test flights' were done with everything but the human, then they include the human after the tests are done.

Are those 'test plus human' still considered test?
I seem to remember footage of an early test flight of an F-16 that could barely get off the ground and once airborne was difficult to land. Modeling has gotten somewhat better now.
 

Zorba

Lifer
Oct 22, 1999
15,395
11,004
136
Probably true, but thems the breaks. I didn't put the blood in the water. Enough emotional pressure and the next MBAs that come along might remember to not fire half their engineers.
I do agree with your premise they did make their bed with decades of laying off the experienced people and union busting. MBAs won't learn though.
 

Zorba

Lifer
Oct 22, 1999
15,395
11,004
136
I seem to remember footage of an early test flight of an F-16 that could barely get off the ground and once airborne was difficult to land. Modeling has gotten somewhat better now.
YF-22 crashed in the test competitions. Lockheed set the flight control against wrong at landing, leading to severe pilot induced oscillation.
 

[DHT]Osiris

Lifer
Dec 15, 2015
15,680
14,209
146
I seem to remember footage of an early test flight of an F-16 that could barely get off the ground and once airborne was difficult to land. Modeling has gotten somewhat better now.
See above, flight platform that requires a pilot vs one that doesn't. Humans are passengers on space launch vehicles, unless there's some new space planes I'm unfamiliar with.
 

Paratus

Lifer
Jun 4, 2004
17,217
14,788
146
See above, flight platform that requires a pilot vs one that doesn't. Humans are passengers on space launch vehicles, unless there's some new space planes I'm unfamiliar with.
All of our capsule have manual flight capability for orbital ops. Manual handling characteristics is a part of the certification process.
 

[DHT]Osiris

Lifer
Dec 15, 2015
15,680
14,209
146
All of our capsule have manual flight capability for orbital ops. Manual handling characteristics is a part of the certification process.
Right, but it's not necessary. You could do a hundred test flights with an unmanned capsule prior to manning it, that's all I was saying. If they've done unmanned launches of these specific capsules then I stand corrected.
 

Zorba

Lifer
Oct 22, 1999
15,395
11,004
136
Right, but it's not necessary. You could do a hundred test flights with an unmanned capsule prior to manning it, that's all I was saying. If they've done unmanned launches of these specific capsules then I stand corrected.
They've already done 2 unmanned flights.
 

pmv

Lifer
May 30, 2008
13,860
8,743
136
I do wonder if the travails of Boeing are, in essence, the long tail of neo-liberalism.

Given that much of the commentary seems to trace the problem back to the McDonnel-Douglas merger, and the switch from being an engineer-run business that happened to make money to being a money-making business that happens to do some engineering, I wonder if it's not just another example of the shift towards an obsession with share-holder returns that began in the Reagan/Thatcher era? It just took a long time to start having noticeable effects in the aerospace sector, because there's so much inertia in that sector.

I mean, a lot of the bad effects of Thatcherism/Reaganism seem to have taken a very long time to become apparent (our water companies going bust, the rise of both China and Trumpism...). Maybe the decline of Boeing is just another one of them?
 

sdifox

No Lifer
Sep 30, 2005
97,310
16,389
126
I see Boeing issues exactly like an engineering issue. How thin can you make the tincan before it fails. They just happen to be reducing the headcount of people that know how tincans work.
 

Zorba

Lifer
Oct 22, 1999
15,395
11,004
136
I do wonder if the travails of Boeing are, in essence, the long tail of neo-liberalism.

Given that much of the commentary seems to trace the problem back to the McDonnel-Douglas merger, and the switch from being an engineer-run business that happened to make money to being a money-making business that happens to do some engineering, I wonder if it's not just another example of the shift towards an obsession with share-holder returns that began in the Reagan/Thatcher era? It just took a long time to start having noticeable effects in the aerospace sector, because there's so much inertia in that sector.

I mean, a lot of the bad effects of Thatcherism/Reaganism seem to have taken a very long time to become apparent (our water companies going bust, the rise of both China and Trumpism...). Maybe the decline of Boeing is just another one of them?
I was thinking about this the other day. SpaceX takes investment money and uses it to do cool things. Boeing does cool things to give investors money. Obviously the sustainable spot is somewhere in the middle of those two extremes.
 
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Zorba

Lifer
Oct 22, 1999
15,395
11,004
136
Which apparently wasn't enough to tease out a faulty valve and a He leak.
I don't think Helium leaks are that uncommon, helium is a bitch to seal up. It's actually used for leak detection a lot because it's so small it can get through any leak path. But a tiny He leak is unlikely to hurt anything.

Not sure what the valve issue was, but also near zero chance the valve was directly designed by Boeing. Of course as the system integrator it's on them, but it likely was someone else's way too thin and inexperienced engineering staff.
 
Reactions: igor_kavinski

pmv

Lifer
May 30, 2008
13,860
8,743
136
I was thinking about this the other day. SpaceX takes investment money and uses it to do cool things. Boeing does cool things to give investors money. Obviously the sustainable spot is somewhere in the middle of those two extremes.

As I understand it, the thing about Boeing is that it seems to have undergone a significant change of character, and every discussion I see of it traces it back to that merger. Its earlier record is actually slightly surprising to me, insofar as it really did seem to put pride in engineering quality far ahead of maximising profits. Hence its safety record was really very good.

Maybe it's just coincidental, and an accidental consequence of what just, by sheer chance, was the nature of its early management vs the corporate culture of McDonnel-Douglas, but also in that respect its previous nature seems very much a product of the post-war boom years, when such an attitude was possible, and the shift seems of-a-piece with the way _everything_ has gone downhill since the end of the boom.

Much of the rest of the corporate world seems to have abandoned that conscientious, pride-in-one's-work approach long ago, but it seems that because aircraft development is such a long-drawn out process (and aircraft purchases such a long-term investment), it's taken longer for that shift towards short-termism and profit maximisation and 'shareholder value' to have filtered through in the aeronautical sector.

Seems that in recent years Boeing has started behaving much more in the way I'd (cartoonishly?) imagined corporations to behave, whereas up till quite recently my expected image of them would have been unfair.
 
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